Finite Element Analysis (FEA)

FEA: Saint-Venant’s principle

If you’ve done FEA, you know that you can get some funky results near boundary conditions. Fixing a face such that absolutely zero motion is allowed, for example, can create high stress concentrations that may not be real. However, thanks to Saint-Venant, we don’t usually have to care. Because… “… the difference between the effects [...]

Tagged as: Finite Element Analysis (FEA)

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some notes on nonlinear fea with contact

So I haven’t had an opportunity to be much cool FEA lately. Still, I’m pretty regularly in reviews where we are reviewing setup, discussing solving approaches, analyzing results etc. It seems lately that most of these analysis involve a fair amount of contact (the presence of which, I have mentioned before, is an indicator that [...]

Tagged as: analysis, Finite Element Analysis (FEA), nonlinear

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when to use nonlinear finite element analysis

Dig even a little bit into the different fea packages out there and you will notice  a distinction between linear and nonlinear analysis. You might then wonder under what circumstances to use linear analysis and what circumstances to use nonlinear analysis? First off, let me say that mechanically speaking, there is no such thing as [...]

Tagged as: CAD, Finite Element Analysis (FEA)

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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 [...]

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

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free body diagrams in product design

Free body diagrams are old-school, and when I was in school I didn’t think I’d use them much. Truth is, I actually use them alot. When I’m doing a feasibility study for a mechanism concept or calculating rough safety factors and don’t have time for an FEA simulation, free body diagrams are the best tool [...]

Tagged as: Finite Element Analysis (FEA), free body diagrams, statics

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