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AE 422 - Structures II
Assignment:
An Overview: Finite Element Analysis
Submitted by:
Velazquez, Revor E.
Submitted to:
November 5, 2018
A. BRIEF HISTORY OF FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS (FEA)
In the 40s, Finite Element Analysis traced back its roots from the development of 'matrix theory
of structural analysis'. Until 50s, this method of analysis satisfactorily solved problems however it
caught up with the limitation of having to solve matrices on the order of tens up to thousands of
rows and columns. This arduous numerical method was deemed impractical even with the most
brilliant human computer, although still possible. By the 60s, electronic computers emerged and
during a conference about electronic computation, one paper discussed the technique for solving
plane stress analysis and where the term finite element was coined. And at that moment, it is
considered to be the launching of finite elements. Quickly, people used this technique in writing
their programs. Finally by the 70s, large general-purpose finite element such as NASTRAN was
introduced. These programs before graphical pre- and post-processors, engineers would need to
manually input all the parameters - including nodes and their locations, connectivity of the
elements, and material properties. And they didn't have a way to tell if there's an error until the
results looked untrue. Eventually by the 80s, graphical pre- and post-processors became available
and made the construction of finite element models easier. It also reduced human errors. In the
long run, the problems got more complex however by the 90s, automatic meshing technology
allows better and faster computing and FEA capabilities. In summary, if today’s problems seem
complex for electronic computers, tomorrow it will eventually be caught up being faster and
stronger. This never-ending race between human needs and technology will reliably bring out
the best in our humanity.
Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMcw0bulgbc
Another advantage with the finite-element method, which is particularly important for multi-
physics analysis, is that you can combine different kinds of functions that approximate the
solution within each element. This is called mixed formulations. This is important, for example, in
the case of electromagnetic heating. The physics and mathematics require one type of function
for the electromagnetic field and another type of function for heat transfer; they both need to be
tightly coupled to get an accurate solution and for the solution to converge. Mixed formulations
are straightforward to handle the finite-element method, but difficult or impossible with other
methods.
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The benefits with both the finite-element method and the finite-volume method are that curved
and irregular CAD geometries are handled in a natural way.
However, the mathematics behind the finite-element method is quite advanced and thus the
method requires mathematical expertise for its implementation. Implementations of finite-
difference and finite-volume methods are comparatively straightforward.
For certain time-dependent simulations, one needs to use so-called explicit solvers for reasons of
efficiency. Implementing such solver techniques is more difficult for the finite-element method
than for the finite-difference and finite-volume methods. However, this has successfully been
commercialized in some cases, such as in crash simulations.
With the finite-difference method, you may easily run into problems handling curved boundaries
for the purpose of defining the boundary conditions. Boundary conditions are needed to truncate
the computational domain. They represent communication with the surrounding world, which is
the part that you do not want included in your simulation. If one can overcome the boundary-
condition problem on curved boundaries, the method gives very efficient and high quality results.
For computations that need high accuracy, the extra effort in making boundary-fitted meshes and
the associated complications of such meshes for the implementation may be worth it. Examples
include Formula 1 car computational-fluid-dynamic (CFD) simulations and space-shuttle CFD
simulations. The finite-difference method is more difficult to use for handling material
discontinuities. In addition, it does not lend itself for local grid refinement or anything similar to
“adaptive mesh refinement.” This may be needed to resolve local rapid variations in solutions
such as around a corner of a complex shape, as described earlier.
The finite-volume method’s strength is that it only needs to do flux evaluation for the cell
boundaries. This also holds for nonlinear problems, which makes it extra powerful for robust
handling of (nonlinear) conservation laws appearing in transport problems.
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The local accuracy of the finite-volume method, such as close to a corner of interest, can be
increased by refining the mesh around that corner, similar to the finite-element method. However,
the functions that approximate the solution when using the finite-volume method cannot be
easily made of higher order. This is a disadvantage of the finite-volume method compared to the
finite-element and finite-difference methods.
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Features
It obtains a set of algebraic equations to solve for unknown (first) nodal quantity (displacement).
The secondary quantities (stresses and strains) are expressed in terms of nodal values of primary
quantity.
Principles of FEA
The finite element method (FEM), or finite element analysis (FEA), is a computational technique
used to obtain approximate solutions of boundary value problems in engineering. Boundary value
problems are also called field problems. The field is the domain of interest and most often
represents a physical structure. The field variables are the dependent variables of interest
governed by the differential equation. The boundary conditions are the specified values of the
field variables (or related variables such as derivatives) on the boundaries of the field.
Stiffness Matrix
The primary characteristics of a finite element are embodied in the element stiffness matrix. For
a structural finite element, the stiffness matrix contains the geometric and material behavior
information that indicates the resistance of the element to deformation when subjected to
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loading. Such deformation may include axial, bending, shear, and torsional effects. For finite
elements used in nonstructural analyses, such as fluid flow and heat transfer, the term stiffness
matrix is also used, since the matrix represents the resistance of the element to change when
subjected to external influences.
D. LIST OF SOFTWARE
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6. DIANA FEA – it is a general-purpose finite element
package utilized by civil, structural, and
geotechnical engineers which was released on
November 14, 2016 by DIANA FEA BV of The
Netherlands.
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10. FEATFLOW – it is a subroutine system for the
numerical solution of the incompressible Navier-
Stokes equations in two and three space
dimensions which was developed by the
University of Heidelberg that was released on 1998.
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15. FEniCS Project – a software package developed by
American and European researchers with the goal
to enable automated solution of differential
equations on July 29, 2015.
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21. OpenSees – it is an open system for Earthquake
Engineering Simulation.
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25. ADINA – it is a finite element software for
structural, fluid, heat transfer, electromagnetic, and
multi-physics problems, including fluid-structure
interaction and thermo-mechanical coupling.
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30. CosmosWorks – it is part of SolidWorks developed
by the Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp.
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35. RFEM – a 3D finite element analysis software
developed by Dlubal Software on February 2016.
E. NUMERICAL METHODS
It refers to a way of computing something that is usually symbolic using numbers. In essence
numerical methods are ways of approximating solutions to mathematical problems using
numerical values rather than symbolic values.
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Examples of numerical methods used in FEA:
1. Elements of Hilbert Space Theory
2. Elements of the Theory of Sobolev Spaces and Variational Formulation of Boundary–Value
Problems in One Dimension
3. Galerkin Finite Element Methods for Two–Point Boundary–Value Problems
4. Results from the Theory of Sobolev Spaces and the Variational Formulation of Elliptic
Boundary–Value Problems in RN
5. The Galerkin Finite Element Method for Elliptic Boundary–Value Problems
6. The Galerkin Finite Element Method for the Heat Equation
7. The Galerkin Finite Element Method for the Wave Equation
REFERENCES:
1. List of Finite Element Software Packages. [Retrieved online on November 04, 2018 at
https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/List_o
f_finite_element_software_packages.html]
2. Vassilios A. Dougalis. FINITE ELEMENT METHODS FOR THE NUMERICAL SOLUTION OF
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS. Department of Mathematics, University of Athens,
Greece and Institute of Applied and Computational Mathematics, FORTH, Greece. 2013.
3. Introduction to Finite Element Analysis and Finite Element Methods.
4. Sjodin, B. 2016. What’s the difference between FEM, FDM and FVM?. [Retrieved online on
November 3, 2018 at https://www.machinedesign.com/fea-and-simulation/what-s-
difference-between-fem-fdm-and-fvm]
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