Finite Element

Analysis for
Design Engineers
Second Edition

6650_Book.indb 1 10/31/16 10:31 AM

 Other SAE books of interest:

Dynamic Analysis and Control System

Design of Automatic Transmissions
Shushan Bai, Joel M. Maguire, and Huei Peng
(Product Code: R-413)

Principles of Vibration Analysis with

Applications in Automotive Engineering
Ronald L. Huston and C. Q. Liu
(Product Code: R-395)

Fundamentals of Automobile Body Structure Design

Donald E. Malen
(Product Code: R-394)

Design and the Reliability Factor

John Day
(Product Code: PT-174)

CAE Design and Failure Analysis of Automotive Composites

Srikanth Pilla and Charles Lu
(Product Code: PT-166)

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6650_Book.indb 2 10/31/16 10:31 AM

 Finite Element
Analysis for
Design Engineers
Second Edition
Paul M. Kurowski

Warrendale, Pennsylvania, USA

Copyright © 2017 SAE International eISBN: 978-0-7680-8369-9

6650_Book.indb 3 10/31/16 10:31 AM

 400 Commonwealth Drive
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 Acknowledgements
This book is dedicated to my wife Elzbieta Kurowska for her encouragement
and support.
Paul M. Kurowski

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6650_Book.indb 6 10/31/16 10:31 AM
 Contents

Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Chapter 1: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 What Is Finite Element Analysis?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 What Is the Place of Finite Element Analysis Among Other Tools of
Computer-Aided Engineering? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Fields of Application of FEA and Mechanism Analysis; Differences
Between Structures and Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.4 Fields of Application of FEA and CFD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.5 What Is “FEA for Design Engineers”?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.6 Importance of Hands-On Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Chapter 2: From CAD Model to Results of Finite Element

Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1 Formulation of the Mathematical Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 Selecting Numerical Method to Solve the Mathematical Model. . . . . . . . 10
2.2.1 Selected Numerical Methods in Computer Aided
Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2.2 Reasons for the Dominance of Finite Element Method. . . . . . . . 11
2.3 The Finite Element Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3.1 Meshing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3.2 Formulation of Finite-Element Equations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3.3 Errors in FEA Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.4 Verification and Validation of FEA Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Chapter 3: Fundamental Concepts of Finite Element

Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1 Formulation of a Finite Element. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1.1 Closer Look at Finite Element. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1.2 Requirements to be Satisfied by Displacement Interpolation
Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.1.3 Artificial Restraints. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.2 The Choice of Discretization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.3 Types of Finite Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.3.1 Element Dimensionality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.3.2 Element Shape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.3.3 Element Order and Element Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

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3.3.4 Summary of Commonly Used Elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

3.3.5 Element Modeling Capabilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Chapter 4: Controlling Discretization Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

4.1 Presenting Stress Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.2 Types of Convergence Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.2.1 h Convergence by Global Mesh Refinement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.2.2 h Convergence Process by Local Mesh Refinement. . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.2.3 Adaptive h Convergence Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2.4 p Convergence Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.2.5 The Choice of Convergence Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.3 Discretization Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.3.1 Convergence Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.3.2 Solution Error. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.4 Problems With Convergence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.4.1 Stress Singularity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.4.2 Displacement Singularity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.5 Hands-On Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.5.1 Hollow Plate (Figure 4.33). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.5.2 L Bracket (Figure 4.34) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.5.3 2D Beam (Figure 4.35). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Chapter 5: Finite Element Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

5.1 Meshing Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.1.1 Manual Meshing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.1.2 Semiautomatic Meshing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
5.1.3 Automeshing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.2 Mesh Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.2.1 Compatible Elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.2.2 Incompatible Elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.2.3 Forced Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.3 Common Meshing Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.3.1 Element Distortion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.3.2 Mesh Adequacy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
5.3.3 Element Mapping to Geometry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.3.4 Incorrect Conversion to Shell Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.4 Hands-On Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.4.1 BRACKET01 (Figure 5.24). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.4.2 Cantilever Beam (Figure 5.25). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Chapter 6: Modeling Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

6.1 Modeling Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
6.1.1 Definition of the Objective of Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
6.1.2 Selection of the Units of Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

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6.1.3 Geometry Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

6.1.4 Definition of Material Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
6.1.5 Definition of Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
6.2 Modeling Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
6.2.1 Mirror Symmetry and Antisymmetry Boundary
Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
6.2.2 Axial Symmetry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
6.2.3 Cyclic Symmetry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6.2.4 Realignment of Degrees of Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6.3 Hands-On Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
6.3.1 BRACKET02-1 (Figure 6.14) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
6.3.2 BRACKET02-2 (Figure 6.15) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
6.3.3 BRACKET02-3 (Figure 6.16) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
6.3.4 Shaft (Figure 6.17). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.3.5 Pressure Tank (Figure 6.18). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6.3.6 RING (Figure 6.19) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6.3.7 Link (Figure 6.20) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Chapter 7: Nonlinear Static Structural Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

7.1 Classification of Different Types of Nonlinearities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
7.2 Large Displacement Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
7.3 Membrane Stress Stiffening. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
7.4 Contact. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
7.5 Hands-On Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
7.5.1 Cantilever Beam (Figure 7.1). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
7.5.2 Torsion Shaft (Figure 7.7). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
7.5.3 Round Plate (Figure 7.12). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
7.5.4 LINK (Figure 7.17). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
7.5.5 Sliding Support (Figure 7.18). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
7.5.6 CLAMP01 (Figure 7.21) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
7.5.7 CLAMP02 (Figure 7.26) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
7.5.8 Shrink Fit (Figure 7.27). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Chapter 8: Nonlinear Material Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

8.1 Review of Nonlinear Material Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
8.2 Elastic–Perfectly Plastic Material Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
8.3 Use of Nonlinear Material to Control Stress Singularity . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
8.4 Other Types of Nonlinearities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
8.5 Hands-On Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
8.5.1 BRACKET NL (Figure 8.3). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
8.5.2 L BRACKET (Figure 8.7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

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Chapter 9: Modal Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

9.1 Differences Between Modal and Static Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
9.2 Interpretation of Displacement and Stress Results in Modal
Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
9.3 Modal Analysis With Rigid Body Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
9.4 Importance of Supports in Modal Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
9.5 Applications of Modal Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
9.5.1 Finding Modal Frequencies and Associated Shapes of
Vibration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
9.5.2 Locating “Weak Spots” in Structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
9.5.3 Modal Analysis Provides Input to Vibration Analysis . . . . . . . 150
9.6 Prestress Modal Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
9.7 Symmetry and Antisymmetry Boundary Conditions in Modal
Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
9.8 Convergence of Modal Frequencies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
9.9 Meshing Consideration for Modal Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
9.10 Hands-On Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
9.10.1 Tuning Fork (Figure 9.12). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
9.10.2 Box (Figure 9.1). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
9.10.3 Airplane (Figure 9.2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
9.10.4 Ball (Figure 9.4). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
9.10.5 Link (Figure 9.5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
9.10.6 Helicopter Blade (Figure 9.7). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
9.10.7 Column (Figure 9.8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
9.10.8 Bracket (Figure 9.10). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Chapter 10: Buckling Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

10.1 Linear Buckling Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
10.2 Convergence of Results in Linear Buckling Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
10.3 Nonlinear Buckling Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
10.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
10.5 Hands-On Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
10.5.1 Notched Column—Free End (Figure 10.1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
10.5.2 Notched Column—Sliding End (Figure 10.2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
10.5.3 Button (Figure 10.11). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
10.5.4 Curved Column (Figure 10.15). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
10.5.5 Stand (Figure 10.16) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
10.5.6 CURVED_SHEET (Figure 10.17). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Chapter 11: Vibration Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

11.1 Modal Superposition Method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
11.2 Time Response Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
11.3 Frequency Response Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

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11.4 Nonlinear Vibration Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

11.5 Hands-On Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
11.5.1 Hammer Impulse Load (Figure 11.2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
11.5.2 Hammer Beating (Figure 11.2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
11.5.3 ELBOW_PIPE (Figure 11.7). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
11.5.4 Centrifuge (Figure 11.10). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
11.5.5 PLANK (Figure 11.13). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Chapter 12: Thermal Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

12.1 Heat Transfer Induced by Prescribed Temperatures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
12.2 Heat Transfer Induced by Heat Power and Convection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
12.3 Heat Transfer by Radiation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
12.4 Modeling Considerations in Thermal Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
12.5 Challenges in Thermal Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
12.6 Hand-On Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
12.6.1 Bracket (Figure 12.1). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
12.6.2 Heat Sink (Figure 12.2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
12.6.3 Channel (Figure 12.4). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
12.6.4 Space Heater (Figure 12.6). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Chapter 13: Implementation of Finite Element Analysis

in the Design Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
13.1 Differences Between CAD and FEA Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
13.1.1 Defeaturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
13.1.2 Idealization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
13.1.3 Cleanup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
13.2 Common Meshing Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
13.3 Mesh Inadequacy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
13.4 Integration of CAD and FEA Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
13.4.1 Stand-Alone FEA Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
13.4.2 FEA Programs Integrated With CAD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
13.4.3 Computer-Aided Engineering Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
13.5 FEA Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
13.5.1 Positioning of CAD and FEA Activities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
13.5.2 Personnel Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
13.5.3 FEA Program Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
13.5.4 Hardware Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
13.5.5 Building Confidence in the FEA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
13.5.6 Return-On Investment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
13.6 FEA Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
13.6.1 Major Steps in FEA Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
13.6.2 FEA Report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
13.6.3 Importance of Documentation and Backups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

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13.6.4 Contracting Out FEA Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

13.6.5 Common Errors in the FEA Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Chapter 14: Misconceptions and Frequently Asked

Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
14.1 FEA Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
14.2 Frequently Asked Questions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Chapter 15: FEA Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Chapter 16: Glossary of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Chapter 17: List of Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

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 Preface
During 60+ years of its development the Finite Element Analysis evolved from an exotic
analysis method accessible only to specialized analysts into a mainstream engineering
tool. Phenomenal progress in computer hardware and operating systems combined with
same progress in Computer Aided Design made the Finite Element Analysis available to
design engineers to use as a design tool during product design process.

Many books have been written about the Finite Element Analysis. At one end of
the spectrum we find books going very deep into theory and at the other end of the
spectrum, software manuals explaining how to use certain FEA program. There is little
FEA literature taking “middle ground” approach and specifically addressing the needs
of design engineers who use the FEA as an everyday design tool. This book attempts to
fill this void by focusing on understanding of FEA fundamentals which are explained by
simple, intuitive examples understandable by any mechanical engineer. “Finite Element
Analysis for Design Engineers” takes practical approach, characteristic to the attitudes of
design engineers, and offers the readers an opportunity to try out all discussed topics by
solving downloadable exercises using their own FEA program.

Finite Element Analysis for Design Engineers is a very broad field of knowledge. It is
difficult to write a book in a “linear” fashion; repetition in discussing concepts, tech-
niques and methods can’t be avoided. For this reason, some topics are discussed more
than once taking advantage of a growing body of knowledge as reader progresses
through the book.

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