AE2351

FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

LTPC 3003

OBJECTIVE To introduce the concept of numerical analysis of structural components UNIT I INTRODUCTION 4

Review of basic approximate methods of analyses Stiffness and Flexibility matrix for simple cases Governing equation and convergence criteria of finite element method. UNIT II DISCRETE ELEMENTS Bar, Frame, beam elements Application to static, dynamic and stability analysis. UNIT III CONTINUUM ELEMENTS 10 12

Various types of 2-D-elements Application to plane stress, plane strain and axisymmetric problems. UNIT IV ISOPARAMETRIC ELEMENTS Applications to two and three-dimensional problems. UNIT V FIELD PROBLEM Applications to other field problems like heat transfer and fluid flow. TOTAL: 45 PERIODS TEXT BOOK 1. Tirupathi.R.C and Ashok D.B, Introduction to Finite Elements in Engineering,Prentice Hall India, Third Edition, 2003. REFERENCES 1. Reddy J.N. An Introduction to Finite Element Method, McGraw-Hill, 2000. 2. Krishnamurthy, C.S., Finite Element Analysis, Tata McGraw-Hill, 2000. 3. Bathe, K.J. and Wilson, E.L., Numerical Methods in Finite Elements Analysis,Prentice Hall of India, 1985. 9 10

UNIT I INTRODUCTION

Review of basic approximate methods of analyses Stiffness and Flexibility matrix for simple cases Governing equation and convergence criteria of finite element method.

Review of basic approximate methods of analyses

1.1

Introduction
A finite element method (abbreviated as FEM) is a numerical technique to obtain an

approximate solution to a class of problems governed by elliptic partial differential equations. Such problems are called as boundary value problems as they consist of a partial differential equation and the boundary conditions. The finite element method converts the elliptic partial differential equation into a set of algebraic equations which are easy to solve. The initial value problems which consist of a parabolic or hyperbolic differential equation and the initial conditions (besides the boundary conditions) cannot be completely solved by the finite element method. The parabolic or hyperbolic differential equations contain the time as one of the independent variables. To convert the time or temporal derivatives into algebraic expressions, another numerical technique like the finite difference method (FDM) is required. Thus, to solve an initial value problem, one needs both the finite element method as well as the finite difference method where the spatial derivatives are converted into algebraic expressions by FEM and the temporal derivatives are converted into algebraic equations by FDM.

Historical Background of FEM

The origin of the Modren Finite Element Method (FEM) may be traced back to early 1900, when some investigators modeled Elastic Continua using the discrete equivalent elastic bars. However Courant .R in 1943 is credited with being the first person to develop the Finite Element Method. Courant used piecewise polynomial interpolation over triangular sub regions to investigate Torsion Problems. The next significant step in the utilization of Finite Element Methods was taken by Boeing in 1950s. Boeing used triangular stress element method to model airplane Wings. During the decades of the 1960s and 1970s, the finite element method was extended to applications in plate bending, shell bending, pressure vessels, and general three-dimensional

problems in elastic structural analysis as well as to fluid flow and heat transfer. In 1976, the First Book Entirely devoted to Finite Element Method was written by Zienkiewicz and Cheung. The finite element method is computationally intensive, owing to the required operations on very large matrices. In the early years, applications were performed using mainframe computers, which, at the time, were considered to be very powerful, high-speed tools for use in engineering analysis. During the 1960s, the finite element software code NASTRAN was developed in conjunction with the space exploration program of the United States. NASTRAN was the first major finite element software code. It was, and still is, capable of hundreds of thousands of degrees of freedom. In the years since the development of NASTRAN, many commercial software packages have been introduced for finite element analysis. Among these are ANSYS, ALGOR, and COSMOS/M. In todays computational environment, most of these packages can be used on desktop computers and engineering workstations to obtain solutions to large problems in static and dynamic structural analysis, heat transfer, fluid flow, electromagnetics, and seismic response.

Basic Steps in the FEM

Pre-Processing Phase

Create and discretise the solution domain into Finite Elements Assume a Shape Function to represent the Physical behavior of an element. Develop equations for an element. Assemble the elements to present the entire problem Apply the boundary conditions and Initial Loading Conditions

Solution Phase

Solve a set of Linear/Nonlinear Algebraic Equations Simultaneously to obtain Nodal Results, Such as displacement values at different nodes or Temperature values at different nodes in a Heat Transfer Problem.

Post-processing Phase

Obtain other important results such as Principal Stress, Heat Fluxes