Finite Element Analysis - Applications in Mechanical Engineering

In the past few decades, the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) has been developed into a key indispensable technology in the modelling and simulation of various engineering systems. FEA as applied in engineering is a computational tool for performing engineering analysis. It includes the use of mesh generation techniques for dividing a complex problem into small elements, as well as the use of software program coded with FEM algorithm. In applying FEA, the complex problem is usually a physical system with the underlying physics such as the Euler-Bernoulli beam equation, the heat equation, or the Navier-Stokes equations expressed in either partial differential equations or integral equations, while the divided small elements of the complex problem represent different areas in the physical system. Finite element analysis (FEA) is a computerised method for predicting how a product reacts to real-world forces, vibration, heat, fluid flow, and other physical effects. Finite element analysis shows whether a product will break, wear out, or work the way it was designed. It is called analysis, but in the product development process, it is used to predict what is going to happen when the product is used. FEA works by breaking down a real object into a large number of finite elements, such as little cubes. Mathematical equations help predict the behaviour of each element. A computer then adds up all the individual behaviours to predict the behaviour of the actual object. The application of the finite element method to the solution of engineering problems includes linear elastic stress analysis, thermal analysis, and modelling limitations and errors. Commercial computer codes are used in the applications. The book presents studies on recent applications of FEA in five foremost topics of mechanical engineering namely, fluid mechanics and heat transfer, machine elements analysis and design, machining and product design, wave propagation and failure-analysis and structural mechanics and composite materials.