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Introduction - Is Finite Element Analysis Right for Me?

If you are looking at Finite Element Analysis (FEA) for the first time, this page has been designed to quickly familiarize you with the basics of the technology and help you assess the type of software you will need for your product design and development process. You can go as deeply into each of these topics as you wish by following the [more] link in each section, or you can get an overview of all the topics by skimming the information on this page.

Our objective is to cut through the industry jargon, theoretical complexities, and equip you with some fundamentals you will need to evaluate the software choices available in the marketplace and determine a course of action that is suited to your design needs, technical level, budget, and business objectives.

If you are a university or technical school student, we have a special offer for learning Finite Element Analysis and invite you to visit Finite Element Analysis for Students.

Product design is essentially an iterative process. The designer starts with a concept, analyzes the feasibility, produces a drawing, makes a prototype, tests it, evaluates the results, and then repeats this process until finally arriving at deliverable version that can be manufactured.

FEA as an engineering analysis tool has undergone development over the last half century. Nastran was initially developed by NASA for the space program in the 1960’s and the term NASTRAN is actually an acronym for NASA Structural Analysis.

A good place to start in defining your FEA software needs is to examine your existing design process. You should be able to define the benefit you are looking to achieve. If a financial justification is part of that benefit, a Return on Investment (ROI) can be calculated that will show you how long will it take for your software investment to pay for itself. You should be asking yourself specific questions to understand the benefits that fit your circumstances.

The most common starting point in the practice of FEA today is with the geometry of the part. For those with 3D CAD capabilities, the first consideration in the selection of an FEA package is that it can either directly interface with the CAD part files or import the CAD geometry from system you are presently using. For those who do not have 3D CAD, the issue is actually much simpler. The FEA software needs to have sufficient geometry generating capabilities for your modeling needs. Second, you should give some thought to your larger working environment. In today’s business environment, sharing FEA information with potential customers, design partners (e.g., consultants, rapid prototyping, stereo lithography equipment, etc.), and part suppliers may also be an important consideration. You want to know that your FEA software can import and export FEA model and results files that can also be accessed by these groups. For example, in the aerospace and automotive industry Nastran is very widely used and essentially the defacto standard FEA solver. So the ability to accept Nastran files is critical in this industry segment. In the automotive industry, the widely used preprocessors are FEMAP, Patran, LMS, and Hypermesh. So compatibility here is also a necessity. The Geometry Import/Export specification for the Femap Modeler illustrates what wide spread compatibility with the major CAD systems looks like. For SolidWorks users, NEi Software now provides Nastran FEA embedded directly inside of SolidWorks. For those with no 3D CAD, the Femap Modeler provides extensive features for creating FEA models capable of simulating and analyzing most types of products.

By far, the most common use of FEA is structural analysis using a Linear Statics solution sequence. Determining the loads and stresses that a part is subjected to given certain loads and boundary conditions is a basic FEA skill and will be your likely starting point for learning any FEA software. However, once this is established, there are many other analyses options that may be important in your product development environment. Some examples include: dynamic response, normal modes, buckling, prestress, heat transfer, fluid flow - all with or without nonlinear effects.

With your justification for FEA established, your CAD and FEA import/export needs defined, the types of analyses for your product identified, and a model you can use for evaluating software, you can begin to look at various FEA software vendors.