FEA for

Engineers

METHODS TO SLOVE ANY ENGINEERING PROBLEMS

ANALYTICAL METHOD
NUMERICAL METHOD
EXPERIMENTAL METHOD

ANALYTICAL METHOD
Classical approach
100% accurate results
Closed form solution
Applicable only for simple Problems like cantilever & simply
supported beams etc , Complete in itself.

NUMERICAL METHOD
-Mathematical representation
-Approximate, assumptions to be made
Applicable even if physical prototype not available (initial design
phase)
-Real life complicated problems
-Results can not be believed blindly & must be verified by
experimental method or hand calculation for knowing the range of
results
Finite Element Method: Linear, Nonlinear, Buckling, Thermal, Dynamic
& Fatigue analysis.
Boundary Element Method: Acoustics, NVH.
Finite Volume Method: CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) &
Computational Electromagnetics.

EXPERIMENTAL METHOD:-Actual measurement

-Time consuming & needs expensive set up
- Applicable only if physical prototype is available
-Results cannot be believed blindly & min. 3 to 5 prototypes must be
tested
-Strain gauge
-Photo elasticity
- Vibration measurements
- Sensors for temp. & pressure etc. Fatigue test

What is FEA/FEM
Definition of FEM is hidden in its words itself. Basic
theme is to make calculations at only limited (Finite)
number of points and then interpolate the results for
entire domain (surface or volume).
Finite Element Method reduces degrees of freedom
from Infinite to Finite with the help of discretization,
meshing (nodes & elements).
& All the calculations are made at limited number of
points known as nodes. Entity joining nodes and
forming a specific shape such as quadrilateral or
triangular etc. is known as Element, To get value of
variable(say displacement)any where in between the
calculation points, interpolation function is used.

EA and FEM different?

Element Method (FEM) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) both are one & the sam
"FEA" is more popular in industries while "FEM at universities.

Introduction to Different Numerical Methods:-

te Element Method (FEM):

s the most popular numerical method.
cations - Linear, Nonlinear, Buckling, Thermal, Dynamic & Fatigue analysis.
will be discussed in detail at later stage.

Boundary Element Method (BEM):

s a very powerful and efficient technique to solve acoustics or NVH problems.

st like finite element method it also requires nodes and elements but
the name suggest it considers only outer boundary of the domain.
in case if the problem is of a volume, only outer surfaces are considered.

Finite Volume Method (FVM):

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software's are based on FVM. Unit volume
considered in Finite Volume Method (similar to element in finite element analysis

Advantages of FEA:

Visualization time is more

Design cycle time is less
No. of prototypes are less
Testing time is less
Optimum design

Visualization of results: For simple geometries such as simply supported

beam or cantilever beam it is easy to visualize point of maximum stress and
displacement. But in real life for parts or assemblies with complex
geometrical shapes, made up of different materials & complex loads varying
w.r.t time is not easy to predict failure location..

Software Based FEM

For using any commercial software there are 3 steps1)Processing-Consumes most time out of the three
steps.
2)Processing (or solution)- just click on "Solve" & it's the
software's turn to do the job
3)Post processing- Result viewing & interpretation
Step 1 - Pre processing
a) CAD data
b) Meshing (or discretization to convert infinite d.o.f to
finite one)
c) Boundary conditions

Step 2 - Processing or Solution

During preprocessing user has to work hard while
solution step is the turn of computer to do the job.
Step 3 - Post processing:Post processing is viewing results, verifications,
conclusions & thinking about what steps could betaken
to improve the design.
Practical Applications of FEA
design group responsible for FE\ related activities,
receive following types of job orders
New design
Optimization or cost cutting projects
Failure analysis