文档介绍：Finite Element Analysis
David Roylance
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02139
February 28, 2001
Introduction
Finite element analysis (FEA) has monplace in recent years, and is now the basis
of a multibillion dollar per year industry. Numerical solutions to even plicated stress
problems can now be obtained routinely using FEA, and the method is so important that even
introductory treatments of Mechanics of Materials – such as these modules – should outline its
principal features.
In spite of the great power of FEA, the disadvantages puter solutions must be kept in
mind when using this and similar methods: they do not necessarily reveal how the stresses are
influenced by important problem variables such as materials properties and geometrical features,
and errors in input data can produce wildly incorrect results that may be overlooked by the
analyst. Perhaps the most important function of theoretical modeling is that of sharpening the
designer’s intuition; users of finite element codes should plan their strategy toward this end,
supplementing puter simulation with as much closed-form and experimental analysis as
possible.
Finite element codes are plicated than many of the word processing and spreadsheet
packages found on modern puters. Nevertheless, they plex enough that most
users do not find it effective to program their own code. A number of mercial
codes are available, representing a broad price range patible with machines from mi-
puters to puters1. However, users with specialized needs should not necessarily
shy away from code development, and may find the code sources available in such texts as that
by Zienkiewicz2 to be a useful starting point. Most finite element software is written in Fortran,
but some newer codes such as felt are in C or other more modern programming languages.
In practice, a finite element analysis usually consists of three principal steps:
1