Notes taken from the following course: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/ocw/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=20959&printable=1 and https://www.engr.uvic.ca/~mech410/lectures/FEA_Theory.pdf
What is FEA?
Finite element analysis is an extremely potent engineering design utility. It is a numerical method for solving problems of engineering and mathematical physics.
. What can it do?
FEA can simulate the following cases among others:
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So yeah…FEA can pretty much do anything, the website mentioned at the beginning has many, many. many more examples of how you can use FEA, if you would like to know the extremely specific, technical things it can do, refer to sections 1.1-1.4 from the above course.
Types of Finite Elements
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Examples:
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Basic Principles
Consider a body or engineering component where the distribution of a field variable is required, for example, displacement or stress. Some other examples could be a component under load, temperature subject to heat input, etc. The body is modelled as being hypothetically subdivided into small parts which we will call elements, i.e. finite elements. These elements are then assumed to be connected to each other but, only by way of interconnected joints which are known as nodes. Elements put together with nodes make what’s called a mesh (illustrated below).
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The following is the reality of the finite element model:
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Summary:
The following is a condensed summary of the whole FEA procedure:
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