Computational Methods II

MEng Module CIVE50003

Lecture 7

Dr Adam Jan Sadowski

Spring Term 2023

CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 1

 The last lecture
 Today will be a little different. No more FE theory!

 I want to present a powerful feature of Matlab programming

that you must use in your coursework

 After a short learning curve you will find that the code becomes
more manageable, shorter, less repetitive, and thus easier to
debug and far more elegant

 Elegant code is maintainable code: easy to read and debug

 I am talking about object-oriented programming, implemented

in Matlab through the use of user-defined Classes
CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 2
 The Matlab Class
 Every single piece of data that you create in Matlab is stored in
memory as a particular Class
 For example:
real no. 1.245 2×2 matrix of ones complex no. 1+2i the characters ‘blah’

π in double precision π in single precision The Matlab workspace tells you what you are
(16 significant figures) (8 significant figures) storing, its class, value, name and size (bytes)

 Matlab knows Class automatically

CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 3
 Matlab structs
 You have seen these before – these are abstract data structures

 The ‘field’ of the struct is its attribute or property, and beside it

you have its value (can be anything, a string, scalar, matrix etc.)
 To illustrate this, we create a struct full of general junk:

A ‘struct’ data structure has its own Matlab Class

CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 4
 Matlab structs
 MYSTRUCT itself is of a Class struct, but what is
contained within its fields can be of any data type

 The variable a is a string ‘blah’ and thus of Class char

 Variables b and c are a real scalar and matrix, and thus of Class double
 So the Matlab struct Class is already quite general and powerful

CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 5

 Matlab structs
 The struct may be used to store data in an organised and
convenient way for the user or programmer

 Let us say we are working on a program that analyses very

many cardboard boxes, their geometry and contents
 Our first box should have a width w = 50 cm, depth d = 30 cm
and height h = 40 cm, and it should be called ‘Timmy’

 What is the surface area A?

 What is the volume V?
 How can we ‘put’ things in the box?

 Well, let’s model Timmy by a struct

CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 6
 Matlab structs
 We can start by setting up the arrangement of the struct

 Except the name, the fields are currently empty. So we define:

 For now we have:

CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 7

 Matlab structs
 If we want the surface area and volume we have to calculate
these ourselves:

 Similarly, if we want to ‘put’ a ‘1’ or ‘4’ or ‘-8’ into box, we

similarly need to code this:

 Our final BOX1 struct is:

CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 8

 Creating your own Matlab Classes
 Structs are nice, but if you want to create a new instance of the
same struct (with the same fields), you have to code it all over
again (can become very cumbersome)
 If you are using a custom-written data structure repeatedly, it is
best to program it as its own Class
 We can create a general Class BOX, and invoke instances of it
whenever necessary
 Type help classdef in Matlab to read up on this powerful capability

CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 9

 Creating your own Matlab Classes
 A Class definition goes in its very own .m file that must have the
same name as the Class. So a Class BOX is stored in BOX.m

 The general structure is thus:

 Properties are the fields of the

Class, it is where you define
the variables (any data type)
associated with each instance of this Class

 Methods are where you define functions that are associated with
each instance of the Class, operating on the object itself
CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 10
 Class BOX
 We start our Class BOX as follows

 You should list all fields that the Class BOX will ever have
here, but you don’t necessarily have to give any a value

 Now any instance of this Class BOX will have these fields

CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 11

 Class BOX
 Once we have specified the properties, we go on to the
methods

 The very first method must be the one invokes to actually

create an instance of Class BOX (the ‘Constructor’ method)
 It doesn’t need to do any calculations, it just passes inputs
and sets them as values of the respective properties (fields)
CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 12
 Class BOX
 Once an instance of Class BOX is created (i.e. we have given the
box a name, width, depth and height), we can do calculations on it

 Two new methods:

 obj = Area(obj)
 obj = Volume(obj)

 The necessary data

is already stored
within the object
properties, so no
new arguments have to passed to these functions
 Note ‘obj’ refers to any future instance (object) of the Class BOX
CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 13
 Class BOX
 Finally, if we want to pass external data to the object, we can
do so. There is a special syntax that we must respect, though!

 We have now defined my entire Class BOX

 Nothing more should be written after the final end command

CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 14

 Class BOX
 Let us use our new Class BOX to create new BOXes easily

 So now:

CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 15

 Class BOX
 If we want to create new BOXes? Easy.

 And another one:

CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 16

 Class BOX
 We can create arrays full of Class BOX objects

 So BOX1 can be accessed as BOXES(1) etc.

 You can create for loops to access each BOX in turn etc.
 This array can be accessed as usual, but you cannot do
something like this:
 BOXES is Class BOX but a = 2 is Class double – these are
different data structures and the operation is not supported
CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 17
 OOP for your coursework
 You need a single Bridge Class in a single .m file
 But you can have multiple calling .m files which make use the Class
e.g. one .m file per Q if you want
 But these calling .m files should be quite small (not much code), and
the bulk of your code (certainly whatever is reused often) should be
‘encapsulated’ within the Class

 Aside from relevant properties, the Class should contain:

 A Constructor method
 This is what brings an instance of your Class into existence

 Creates the Data Object and allows you to use it further

 An Assembler method
 This is what constructs your system matrices (more than one)

 Think carefully how often the expensive assembly operation must

be performed for each analysis....
CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 18
 OOP for your coursework
 Aside from relevant properties, this Class should contain:
 Solve methods
 Think carefully how to solve an equation of the type [A]{x} = {b}
when you have multiple {b}
 You are asked to investigate Cholesky decomposition and to use
this as efficiently as possible. This permits, for some matrices, the
decomposition [A] = [G]’[G] where [G] is an upper triangular matrix.
 Explain why Cholesky may be an appropriate method, and how it
can be used as efficiently as possible for the computation of
influence lines.
 Post-processor method
 Each analysis asks for something different from each solver

 Post-processing includes plotting figures (deformed shapes, results

curves etc.)
 Any other method you feel is appropriate!

CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 19

 OOP for your coursework
 A premium is placed on:
 Correct code that is not buggy and runs to completion

 Well structured code that shows you have thought through the logic

 Well commented code that explains the policy but not the mechanism

 Good use of encapsulation (hiding reusable code inside the Class)

 Minimising duplication of computational effort across the Qs

 A professionally presented report with a title page, page numbers, no

spelling errors, no hand-drawn figures or equations

 Good explanations of results with structural & computational arguments

CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 20
 Python
 A ‘true’ and very powerful object-oriented programming language
 It is completely free and comes with an advanced programming
environment – Anaconda or simply Visual Studio Code (I use this)

 Python can be used for very advanced data manipulation and

visualisation thanks to its ‘native’ implantation of objects

 Not quite as convenient for matrices as MATLAB

 Used as:
 Script interface with the powerful ABAQUS FE software
 Data analysis and data science (e.g. Panda)
 Machine learning (e.g. PyTorch)
CIVE50003 Computational Methods II – Lecture 7 21