No worries, your questions helps me a lot :). So the force that is output by AutoPIPE is the force that is developed inside the pipe when the extension of the pipe is restrained. We will not see any axial force reported by AutoPIPE if the pipe was free to elongate. You are right when you say the the more accurate representation of the axial force may be F = sigmaP1*A, which also takes in to account the end cap force. I think AutoPIPE does report that F value in some of the stress output reports instead of simply the force provided by the Forces and Moments output report. And yes, the reaction on the anchor is also reported as the actual reaction that is experienced by the anchor when trying to restrain the axial elongation of the pipe. Hope this helps.
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