Good source for the basics of FEA

[Schipperus]

Hi All,

let me first introduce myself a bit:

My name is IJsbrand Schipperus, I work for an engineering office in The Netherlands. We do in house project and we send people to other companies. For our in house projects we want to have one persons who can do FEA on FEMAP (UGS - Siemens). Guess what, they asked me...

First of all, I do have had some education on strength calculation, but never FEA or matrix calculations. What I am searching for is some basic resource to work through, so I understand what the program is doing for me...

So for short: internet resources on matrix calculations and basic FEA are welcome, books are very welcome too.

IJsbrand Schipperus

 

[corus]

The mind boggles at a company that decides to let one person use FEA with no previous experience and no one to check on their work. Still, it's cheaper than hiring one who has and a pretty picture is a pretty picture.

FEMAP, as far as I can see, is only the pre-processor to other software you'll need to actually do the analysis. If you've bought some decent software then there should be manuals supplied with it that will give you the basics of FEA.

You don't need to know about matrix calculations at all.

corus

 

[xerf]

See the next links:

http://www.colorado.edu/engineering/CAS/courses.d/IFEM.d/Home.html

http://www.colorado.edu/engineering/CAS/courses.d/NFEM.d/Home.html

http://www.colorado.edu/engineering/CAS/courses.d/AFEM.d/Home.html

http://www.colorado.edu/engineering/CAS/courses.d/FSI.d/Home.html

 

[40818]

Shipperus, may i ask what field of engineering you and the company you work for operate in??

 

[Schipperus]

Thanks all,

the idea of me being the only person doing strength calculations is that in the future we have the capacity of doing so. For the time being our reseller will support us and I will have them check my first projects.

We do a large array of different engineering, but our core bussiness is mechanical engineering, machine design. We have customers doing lithography, so very small, very unique engineering (vacuum also), but we do off-shore projects too. Most project fall in between, like automated drill-lines and plant handling machines.

Xerf: looks good, I think you hit the target here!

IJsbrand Schipperus

 

[feaplastic]

Hi Schipperus,

http://www.rpi.edu/~des/IFEA2007Fall.html

One of the best material which explains well for the beginner.

Try "Building better products with finite element analysis"
book also. (can find in amazon)

All the best,

 

[rob768]

Dear IJsbrand,

there are some courses on FEM, given by MSE, and maybe also by UGS/Siemens (as they both have the same person in assisting them in the support of their customers).

 

[40818]

Well, the people whp write the codes, i.e MSC (nastran) etc do courses to give the basics. You can read any amount of textbooks/manuals, but they will never give you the expertise you require. that only comes with experience. Your company needs to bring in an "expert" who will pass on the info you need.
You need to know how, why and where to use certain elements with repesct to true life structure, which tends to be governed by industry methods. Reading textbooks wont give you the necessary info that you need to have in order to use the FE in anger.
i must say, having one person who is currently untrained within a company which intends to use software seems a bit worrying for me.

 

[Ding123]

40818,what you said is exactly right. Practical FEA requires deep understanding of the theory and a lot of experience. Your input garbage, you get garbage.

Also, all the results need interpretion which need engineering sense too.

FEA is not just piece of cake.

Thanks.

 

[GregLocock]

Wrong, in detail

You don't need a deep grasp of theory to do good FEA. You need to understand roughly how the theory works, and a good understanding of its implications.

But that is not the same as a deep understanding of the theory.



Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[Ding123]

GregLocock,

Never become an expert, then.

 

[GregLocock]

Grins

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[Tmoose]

At least twice in the last decade or 2, and maybe 3 times different technical customers have asked if I wrote my own FEA program.

No, I did not. Nor could I.

 

[DaPE]

Hello SIJsbrand Schipperus,

A good web site is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite_element_method.

Use of FEMAP without significant FEA training would not be prudent. While an untrained user can "mouse" around in the FEMAP program and obtain "results" that may look "pretty", the results may not represent the correct solution due to not understanding the FEA process and modeling of the problem.
However, I believe you are starting at a good beginning - self training - that is, if nothing else is available.

The best of luck to you.

 

[GregLocock]

the wiki FEA page is appalling. Do the world a favour and edit it until it is at least mediocre.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[aliante]

Hi ,

I completely agree with people who say : knowledge about theory of finite elements is essential for understanding how to model a structure or a part of it , how to implement a material and so on. Not only have you to be able to model it, but also the experience to understand the results of the analysis.
However, my advice is to study at least this book:
1) Fundamentals of finite element analysis by David V. Hutton.
It's more practical then Zienkiewicz.
Enjoy your studies.
Aliante