START HERE! LOG IN ENGLISH !

CONSULTING COURSES PORTFOLIO BLOG CONTACT

Finite Element
Analysis work2ow MOST
When I 6rst started working with Finite Element POPULAR
Analysis (FEA) I had a huge problem in
understanding what to do. I had a basic engineering
!
knowledge but I simply did not understand what Test your FEA
was the order of the steps. Suddenly the software skills!
Quiz (2-3 min.)
had many “modules” and each was screaming at
me that some data is missing. Not to mention that !
apparently I was using 2 software solutions at the
All about
Buckling
same time and I was even unaware of it! Analysis
posted on August
It took me some time to realize how things work, as 20th, 2019

I had to learn that by myself. If you are in a similar !

spot right now, below I will give you the FEA FEA by Hand
posted on March 9th,
work2ow with short descriptions what to do in each
2019
step.
!
How Accurate
is FEA?
FEA Work)ow 1: Geometry posted on February
3rd, 2019

This is the part that is the most obvious. Whatever !

Linear vs
you will do, it is best to implement geometry Nonlinear FEA!
“somehow” into the system. Imagine we want to posted on February
design a cantilever that looks like this: 20th, 2019

Stay
newsletter
updated!
Get all new posts
directly to your inbox.

Your name

Your e-mail

I agree to receive

marketing materials. Read

more…

The 6rst thing to do would be to implement Sign Up

geometry of this example into our software. You
can do this in 2 ways:

Geometry import from CAD: A very popular

solution where you don’t do geometry in your
SEARCH
FEA preprocessor. This assumes that you
actually have a 3D model of the part made my
someone doing CAD in your company. Search... "
Software like Inventor or Solid Edge have
much more “possibilities” when it comes to
creating geometry. In many preprocessors
there are only basic functions when it comes CATEGORIES
to this aspect, so creating a geometry in an
“external” program and importing it makes
FEA: Basics
sense.
FEA: Intermediate
Creating geometry in preprocessor: This is
the second approach. Instead of using other FEA: Advanced

programs to do it you can simply create the

 geometry in the “FEA software” from scratch. FEA Design Tips

You should know that both approaches have good Benchmarks

and bad sides. Depending on what you do, and what
FEA Topics:
type of 3D model you can get it is better to switch
approach. Without a doubt importing geometry is • Linear Analysis
the more popular approach. But be aware that
• Nonlinear
sometimes when you get a 3D model it is simply
Analysis
less work to do it once more than to “clean it up”.
But this is a topic for completely different post • Meshing
altogether! • Boundary
Conditions
At this stage, you should also decide whether you
will model your case as a solids shells or beams (or • Post Processing
a mix of those). This is a very broad topic, for now, • Contact
let’s assume that we are making a solid model.
• Linear Buckling

Case Studies

Structural Design
Topics:

• Structural Steel

• Stability

• Connections
A small twist: you don’t need the geometry!
Literally, when solver will do the calculations it won’t Basic Engineering
even “see” it. This means that you can only create Concepts
mesh without geometry and it will still work (equally Art of Engineering
well). This has sense in some situations but most
Q&A
likely you will do geometry at the beginning anyway!
This is because geometry makes it easier to make RFEM
mesh most of the time There are also other
FEMAP
advantages we will discuss later on.
Events
Also sometimes creating geometry requires some
additional steps. Sometimes you need to make “an
assembly” out of the parts you have created (so the
software knows where are things in relation to each
other in space). This is however software Free FEA
dependent (and usually pretty easy to do as well).
essentials
course!
FEA Work)ow 2: Material /
Boundary conditions / Loads First Name

Email
I didn’t break this up into smaller steps as I tend to
think about it as a “one” thing. When you have the
I agree to receive
geometry the most diccult part (at least for me!) is
marketing materials.
done! Now you need to do the more demanding
More
tasks.
Start learning FEA today!
Material properties: At the very minimum you
need to explain to the software which part is
made of what material. This is however not
everything! Even when you decided what
materials shall be used you should also Test your FEA
decide what material models will you skills! only 3 min.

consider (i.e. will the material be linear elastic

or will have plastic behavior or something
else). I have described some material models
here.

Boundary conditions: I’m tempted to say that

this is the most important part of FEA.
Without a doubt, you need to support your
model in order to calculate it. Just be aware
that this is actually more complex than it may
seem! I have made a case study about BC
based on one project we have designed at
Enterfea.

Loads: Without the loads, there is nothing to

 analyze right? Again a lot can be said about
applying loads. Just remember that there are
different types of loads.

Note on geometry applied loads / BC: We haven’t

meshed our model yet. This means that BC and
loads are applied to geometry rather than mesh.
Usually, this is a good idea, but it may not be
possible in some cases. As a rule, I prefer to load
and support the geometry rather than mesh (both
are doable). Thanks to such approach, when I re-
mesh my model (i.e. to make mesh re6nement) I
won’t have to check/correct the loads and supports.

Somewhere here you also de6ne contacts and

contact properties. This is, however, a bit more
advanced thing.

FEA Work)ow 3: Meshing

This is a long topic! There are so many things to

consider here. We have already made some
decisions (like that we are making a solid model).
But so much more is ahead of us. For many people
meshing is the worst part, but for whatever reason, I
like it more than geometry creation/cleaning.

Most important aspects of meshing are:

 What element types to use
How to actually mesh the thing (which is a
skill on its own)
How to check if the mesh size is ok?

If you are creating a model without geometry this is

where you start (and then apply loads and
everything else from step 2 onto the mesh).

To be fair it should be said that this step and a

previous step mix together. Without a doubt, you
create properties 6rst and then you do mesh, but
you can easily load the model after meshing. This
means that you will often switch the order of those
things depending on the task you are doing. I didn’t
want to make meshing a part of the previous step,
however – this is a big and time-consuming
process so it “deserves” a separate entry!

FEA Work)ow 4: Analysis

This is the part I love! The analysis is something

that you actually do in the different software even
though usually it’s hard to tell. Usually, an FEA
software has 2 parts:

Pre and post-processor: This is where you

set up the model, de6ne everything that is to
de6ne and after that, you send an input 6le to
the solver. Then solver does its thing. Then
you get back to post processor to see the
results.

Solver: Think about a solver as a geek in the

family. While everyone makes everything
looks nice, he is the only one who can actually
 solve the problem. However, he is usually so
deep into the “calculation” of things that he
only understands “geek language”. This
means you need to talk to his family (the
preprocessor) so they can explain to the geek
(solver) what is to be done. And then the
family will tell you what the outcomes are
(post-processor). If the geek would do it
himself… it would be hard to understand!
Still… learning geek language is SO MUCH
FUN (seems I’m a geek)!

Note that there should be a separate manual for the

solver and separate for pre/post processor. What
happens is that the software you use generates the
“input 6le” that looks a bit like a programming
language (but a bit simpler). Then it sends this 6le
to solver (automatically), and solver based on the
6le does the calculations.

Remember when I wrote that solver usually doesn’t

see geometry at all? This is because geometry is
not translated into the input 6le – there is no point
to do that. From solver standpoint only mesh
matters when it comes to “shape”.

When solver 6nishes it splits out an “output 6le” –

post processor will import it and simply display the
outcomes for you. Both input and output 6les can
be read in a simple text editor.

The analysis is the biggest thing for me in FEA, even

though sometimes it’s just “one click”. You can set
up so many awesome things here like geometrical
nonlinearity or material nonlinearity.
FEA Work)ow 5: Post-processing

Usually, you get a lot of different outcomes from an

analysis. Post processing is the part where you see
all the important results and do some additional
checking. For the software, it is only a “display
results” function (even though those can be really
complex). However, as an engineer, you will do
more. It’s not succient to simply see the outcomes
and paste them into a report. You need to think if
the outcomes are correct if no mistakes were made
etc. Most importantly however you need to decide if
you accept such an outcome or does the thing need
strengthening (or is there a chance for more
optimization).

In fact, this checking if the part is actually ok based

on the outcomes is a skill in post-processing.
Getting the outcomes is usually easy.

I would also include creating reports in this part, as

this is also an important skill to have!

Want to learn more about FEA?

This is one of the topics I will teach in my new
course: FEA essentials.

You can get it by subscribing below:

Free FEA
essentials
course!
First Name

Email

Start learning FEA

today!

Liked the article? Share it # $

%
with friends!

4 Comments

Anonymous May 4, 2017 at 7:54 am - Reply

Well written !

Clearly and simply !

The best way to start using FEA for real

work is to attend a training course but
you do need to have some basic
theoretical knowledge in FEM.
 Łukasz Skotny May 4, 2017 at 1:57 pm -
Reply

Hey,

Thank you for kind words

I agree that theoretical knowledge

is incredibly important, but most of
the time it is taught with the use of
complicated math and a lot of
equations. This is why the course I
do on starting with FEA have a
basic engineering concepts part
where I teach all important theory
without math using simple real life
examples

Have a great day

Ł

Akshay B October 25, 2019 at 7:00 pm - Reply

Hey! Can you suggest me some books

wherein I can read the “non-technical”
stuffs about FEA. Most books cover only
the technical stuff which I hardly use in
FEA. No where does it mention anything
about types of meshes, mesh quality, etc.

Łukasz Skotny October 26, 2019 at 7:13

am - Reply

Hey!

Sadly I haven’t found a good book

to recommend. I want to write a
 few of my own, but you know… it
takes a lot of time! You can always
check my course
(https://enterfea.com/learning-
fea/), there is over a 140k words of
written text there, so there is plenty
to read

If you will 6nd a good book about

those things de6nitely let me know
and I will spread it around!

All the best

Ł

Leave A Comment

Comment...

Name (required) Email (required) Website

Save my name, email, and website in this

browser for the next time I comment.

POST COMMENT
CONSULTING PORTFOLIO # & %
COURSES BLOG NEWSLETTER

COOKIE POLICY