Absolut beginner - how to get started?

[niaren]

I have worked as a signal processsing engineer for 10 years in the field of acoustics/audio. Recently FEA caught my interest when I read an article where the authors had carried out a mode analysis of the interior of a car. And they used FEA.
I have no practical experience with FEA and I have never had the chance to play around with any FEA program.

How can I get started?

What I have been hoping to find is a tutorial, that explains how to create a very simple model/mesh and from that continue in very simple small basic steps with the modeling/analysis part.

Can anyone recommend how I can get started with FEA?

niaren

 

[oaphd]

hello niaren,

I recently started working with abaqus about a year ago. The documentation has a bunch of example problems. If you go through them, you'll get a basic idea of how to do some things.

 

[oaphd]

Above, i was referring to ABAQUS which is the FEA program that i use. Im assuming whatever program you choose will have some kind of documentation.

 

[IanME]

When I started on FEA (ANSYS user here) I liked to replicate problems from my mechanics text books within ANSYS to see if I could generate similar results as to the book's solution. Always a good starting point.

The more you use a particular software package, the more comfortable you get with it. It's just a matter of understanding the physics behind the problems you are exploring.

Best of Luck,
-Ian

"All models are wrong, but some are usefull" - George E. P. Box

 

[IceBreakerSours]

If you can afford to spend a few hundred dollars, join NAFEMS. You'll learn both modeling and theory from the experts. That, probably, is the most efficient way to learn. Of course you can also learn on your own but that route comes with its own challenges.

http://www.eng-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=376

http://www.eng-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=1083

 

[jvian]

My advice is learn to understand the GIGO principle (garbage in garbage out) and always ask questions. FEA is extremely powerful but even now as I look back at my learning experiences, the majority of times in the beginning were such that had I not had experienced help critic my work and advise me in directions, I would have had horrible results. When creating the 'simple models' you describe, they start to get very complicated and complex if you want any fidelity into the results. As far as references, Ansys is great for documentation and most is freely available. I use Creo Simulate (pro/Mechanica) and there are some tutorials from SDC publications that do a descent job. The info from PTC is pretty much well non-existent or useless. Other than that it has been from our more experienced users.

Hope that helps and good luck,

- J -

 

[boboinlondon]

If you can geta copy of ANSYS classic I cannot recommend enough these publically available tutorials from the University of Alberta:
[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.mece.ualberta.ca/tutorials/ansys/[/url]

They are fun, informative and easy to do. I know you can buy a copy of ANSYS Ed for around £100, which limits the size of model you can use (ie you can't do any complex simulations), but it is perfect for these tutorials.

 

[Twoballcane]

FEA is a tool and not the subject matter. Just like a hammer is a tool to a carpenter to build houses. Learn how to build houses before learning how to swing the hammer. I would suggest that you learn the subject matter first. If it is modal analysis, you should delve into dynamics both in sinusoidal and random. If you get into stresses and deflections, you should delve into mechanical and structural analysis. However, in the real world, you will need to combine both of these subjects to have a meaningful design. Since you are an Electrical Engineer, picking up other text books in other discipline and learning should be easier for you than a layman. Mechanical Engineering is really using math to solve physical problems.

Tobalcane
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