MAE 4700 - Finite Element Analysis for Mechanical and Aerospace Design

Fall. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

Enrollment limited to: seniors or permission of instructor. Co-meets with MAE 5700.

N. Bouklas.

Introduction to linear finite element static analysis for discrete and distributed mechanical and aerospace structures. Prediction of load, deflection, stress, strain, and temperature distributions. Major emphasis on underlying mechanics and mathematical formulation. Introduction to computational aspects via educational and commercial software (such as MATLAB and ANSYS). Selected mechanical and aerospace applications in the areas of trusses, beams, frames, heat transfer, and elasticity. A selection of advanced topics such as dynamic modal analysis, transient heat transfer, or design optimization techniques may also be covered, time permitting.

Outcome 1: Students will be able to recall, identify, and analyze the mathematical and physical principles underlying the FEM as applied to solid mechanics, thermal analysis and select aspects of fluid mechanics.

Outcome 2: Students will be able to develop their own FEM computer programs, for mathematically simple but physically challenging problems, in MATLAB.

Outcome 3: Students will be able to compare FEM results obtained with MATLAB with those obtained from ANSYS. Analyze more complex problems (in solid mechanics or thermal analysis) using the commercial FEM code ANSYS.

Outcome 4: Students will be able to demonstrate the ability to design a component using FEM analysis (both MATLAB AND ANSYS).

Outcome 5: Students will be able to make clear and effective technical presentations, both in terms of form as well as content, of his/her work and write clear technical reports describing his/her work.