Finite Element Analysis Fundamentals

The FEA101 is the perfect course for both first-time users of FEA and experienced users who haven’t seen the inside of a book for a long time.

The course content is largely software-independent, although step-by-step tutorials are provided for MSC Apex with MSC Nastran because it’s easy to use and very little time is required to learn how to apply and experiment with what you have learnt in the course.

This moves the focus of the course squarely to the fundamentals of FEA and how to navigate around the many pitfalls and dangers many users of FEA are not even aware of.

With more than a total of 65 combined years of experience in using FEA and more than 40 years of experience teaching and supporting customers, the SIMTEQ team consolidated their knowledge and experience to provide a relevant and practical course that will save you time and money and give your results credibility.

The theory behind various aspects of FEA is covered in enough detail to provide you an understanding of why certain mistakes are regularly made and to understand why and how to eliminate them from occurring in the first place.

The practical exercises are worked out with clear-to-follow instructions for MSC Apex and MSC Nastran but you will also be able to complete all the exercises in any other software of your choice if you have experience using it.

The topics covered in this course are as follows:

• Introduction to the FE method
• Limitations of the Linear Static method
• 1D Elements
• 2D Elements
• 3D Elements
• Stress concentrations
• The use of strain gauges with FEA
• Connectors
• Contact
• Modal analysis
• Buckling analysis
• Coordinate systems
• Boundary Conditions
• Material models and properties
• Fields
• Result interpretation
• CAD Clean-up