FEA insights

Bob Ketelhohn (a colleague of mine) put together a pretty swell writeup over at Farm on FEA.

Some of my favorite nuggets:

  • FEA is a prototype reducing tool. It does not eliminate the need for real prototypes.
  • Trust your gut. If it looks wrong, it probably is.
  • Comparative analysis is your best friend.
  • Mesh density in high-stress areas is critical.
  • Check your work with other people. Farm has a dedicated Stress Group to review even the simplest analysis run.
  • There is no such thing as a quick analysis.
Check out the article here. If you’ve got any questions just drop them in the comments section; I’m sure Bob will answer.

Related posts:

  1. sustainable links
  2. when to use nonlinear finite element analysis
  3. five phases of “done-ness”

Tagged as: Finite Element Analysis (FEA), product design

Article by chris loughnane

Chris is Design Engineer + Sustainability Advocate at a Boston area design consultancy and has written 134 sweet posts for the Product Development Notebook.

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