LAB 1 INTRODUCTION ON FINITE ELEMENT (LEVEL 1 OEL) (2 HOURS)

FINITE ELEMENT METHOD LABORATORY SESSION

CES 512/513

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this laboratory session, student should be able to:

a) access, model specific civil engineering problems and execute LUSAS software on
solving civil engineering problems (CO2:PO9)
b) refine and evaluate the suitable finite element density on controlling the solution
accuracy (CO2:PO9)

OBJECTIVES

In this laboratory, the objectives of this activities are as follows;

a) to understand how LUSAS able to perform pre-processing and post-processing of
civil engineering problems
b) to interpret the numerical values obtained from LUSAS
c) to control accuracy of the LUSAS solution by refining the mesh of the model

INTRODUCTION

Finite element method.

The finite element method (FEM) is a numerical method for solving problems of engineering
and mathematical physics. It is also referred to as finite element analysis (FEA). Typical
problem areas of interest include structural analysis, heat transfer, fluid flow, mass transport,
and electromagnetic potential. The analytical solution of these problems generally require the
solution to boundary value problems for partial differential equations. The finite element
method formulation of the problem results in a system of algebraic equations. The method
yields approximate values of the unknowns at discrete number of points over the domain.[1] To
solve the problem, it subdivides a large problem into smaller, simpler parts that are called finite
elements. The simple equations that model these finite elements are then assembled into a
larger system of equations that models the entire problem. FEM then uses variational
methods from the calculus of variations to approximate a solution by minimizing an
associated error function.

FEA is a good choice for analyzing problems over complicated domains (like cars and oil
pipelines), when the domain changes (as during a solid state reaction with a moving boundary),
when the desired precision varies over the entire domain, or when the solution lacks
smoothness. For instance, in a frontal crash simulation it is possible to increase prediction
accuracy in "important" areas like the front of the car and reduce it in its rear (thus reducing
cost of the simulation). Another example would be in numerical weather prediction, where it
is more important to have accurate predictions over developing highly nonlinear phenomena
(such as tropical cyclones in the atmosphere, or eddies in the ocean) rather than relatively calm
areas.

A short description on LUSAS

LUSAS has its origins back in 1970 when a group of research workers at the University of
London (now incorporated into Imperial College London) began work on the London
University Stress Analysis System, "LUSAS". This team was led by Dr. Paul Lyons, who, in
1982, set up an independent company, Finite Element Analysis Ltd., to further develop, and
subsequently market the software as a general purpose structural analysis system. In 1997,
following the introduction of a range of specialist application software packages, the company,
for awareness reasons, then started to trade under the LUSAS name.
LUSAS software consists of a Windows-based Modeller, used for model building and viewing
of results, and a Solver for carrying out an analysis. Four commercial application products cater
for the following industries:
Civil & Structural - for civil, structural, nuclear, seismic, geotechnical and offshore
engineering.
Bridge - for bridge engineering analysis, design, and assessment.
Analyst - for automotive, aerospace, defence, manufacturing and general engineering
analysis.
Composite - for engineers designing composite products or components.

For Universities, an Academic version which permits the running of any commercial LUSAS
software product can be used for teaching and research use.

1.0 PROCEDURE

Students are required to follow the lecturers instruction on using LUSAS in the lab session.

2.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Students are required to use the given problem during the classroom.

3.0 SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM

Student are required to produce the output of the LUSAS software according to the given
problem.

4.0 REPORTING

No report is required to submitted, but the lecturer will verify whether it is correct or not.