Complementary study material for FEM
Complementary study material for FEM
(OP)
Hello, as I come to end of my degree I feel like I have consumed so much knowledge some earlier more fundamental topics have inevitably been pushed out of my brain! Whilst I have an appreciation and understanding of general engineering concepts, such as mechanics, calculus, matrix algebra etc. etc. I feel that as I move into my career (which will involve FEA) I would like to re-visit some more fundamental topics and set my understanding in concrete.
My question is...besides studying FEM theory (numerical methods and solvers etc.), what would you recommend to accompany this. I assume materials and engineering mechanics (statics and dynamics) are probably the best place to revisit.
Any thoughts or recommendations are welcome. Also how do you keep on top of these things? Or if you have been working in this sector for a long time is it just second nature to you?
Thanks. J
My question is...besides studying FEM theory (numerical methods and solvers etc.), what would you recommend to accompany this. I assume materials and engineering mechanics (statics and dynamics) are probably the best place to revisit.
Any thoughts or recommendations are welcome. Also how do you keep on top of these things? Or if you have been working in this sector for a long time is it just second nature to you?
Thanks. J





RE: Complementary study material for FEM
RE: Complementary study material for FEM
After 46 years at "the coal face" I can definitely recommend revisiting the fundamentals of strength of materials and really get to grips with issues such as free-body diagrams, boundary conditions, linear- or non-linear behaviour. If you are going to work in stress- or structural analysis you must be able to check your FEA results using "hand calculations".
I used FEA a lot in my career but always kept good strength of materials books handy. I would recommend that you buy Timoshenko's classics.
All the best.
Andries
RE: Complementary study material for FEM
Really, the theory of mechanics of materials, statics, dynamics, etc., haven't changed at all since Timoshenko and Gere et al wrote those books back in the 20s and 30s. He was an applied mathematician trying to catalogue as many closed-form solutions to solid mechanics as he could find, and the insights you get from his explanation is worth all the reams of FEA program output you can produce yourself.
If you don't understood what's actually going on vs. what the computer is telling you, then you will eventually get yourself into trouble, because the real-world doesn't care whether you coded the problem correctly or not.
I'm 58 and finished my graduate work 30 years ago; I can only IMAGINE how bad it's gotten since then (I can pick up any building code and tell that we're overthinking things a bit).
Go find the Timoshenko books, really. No one else ever did anything better to explain the theory, and I don't care how complex a formulation your finite element has in it, in the end they're just trying simulate the same thing Timoshenko was demonstrating. Sure, you can solve problems he couldn't but that's only a difference in computing power, not theory.
"No one is completely useless. He can always serve as a bad example." --My Dad ca. 1975
RE: Complementary study material for FEM
RE: Complementary study material for FEM