5. Criteria for judging support

5.1 General principles

Since the aim of the study is to produce a piping system capable of providing a defined service for a defined period of time, the problem is to be able to judge whether this aim will be achieved. To achieve this, a number of conditions must be met:

1) at no point must the state of stress exceed a limit value, beyond which serious problems could arise (exaggerated deformations, cracks, loss of tightness);

2) the deformation must not be detrimental to the normal operation of the system (water pockets due to significant deflection between two supports);

3) the forces exerted by the pipe on its anchors must be admissible.

The second condition is solved either by using...