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Six Tip to Improve Your FEA

An experienced engineer doesn’t have some magic button to deliver great FEA. Masters of FEA trade-craft hoard many little tricks and nuggets of wisdom to deliver better FEA. These tricks yield better ways to detect human errors and ensure model reliability. Or methods to deliver faster results. Today we share six nuggets of wisdom for better FEA.

Introduction

What can be better than an extended article revealing several secrets to great Finite Element Analysis (FEA)?  A video that delivers the same information in about 10 minutes!

DMS originally published an article on this subject in late 2017.  We received extensive positive feedback for that article. 

Six keys to Better Marine FEA

But we pay attention to our clients and noticed that our YouTube videos received far wider distribution.  So we took a good idea and expanded it.  This video covers the same topic, but accessible to a much wider audience.

Share Freely

Please share this video with everyone you know.  Especially with new FEA engineers.  We need to learn more than just the software.  FEA requires more than a few buttons on a screen.  We need to teach a solid foundation in good modeling practices.  University teachers:  give this link to your class.  Let everyone learn good modeling practices from the beginning.

When we all work together, we raise the standard for everyone.  This delivers more consistent engineering and ensures satisfied clients, no matter who performs the FEA.

Video References

[1] American Bureau of
Shipping, Guide for Safehull Dynamic Loading Approach for Vessels, Houston,
TX: American Bureau of Shipping, February 2014.
[2] Hagerman &
Company, Inc., “Degrees of Freedom – Mixing Solid, Shell and Line
Elements in Nastran In-CAD,” YouTube, 28 Nov 2017. .
Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg2dHz2dxEM. .
[3] American Bureau of
Shipping, Guidance Notes on Safehull Finite Element Analysis of Hull
Structures, Houston, TX: American Bureau of Shipping, February 2014.
[4] R. Smith,
“Intersecting Beam Structure – With and Without Stiffener
Plates,” Weldsmith, 27 Sep 2016. . Available:
https://www.weldsmith.co.uk/tech/finiteelement/1609_beam_tjn_sim/160927_beam_w_column_w-wo_stiffplts.html.
.
[5] A. Taha, “FEA
Analysis “Static” of Side Stiffened Plate (Total
Deformation),” YouTube, 25 Jul 2017. . Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lAH1IOUd0U. .
[6] B. Kostov,
“Hardtail Motorcycle Frame – Mode Shape 5,” YouTube, 05 Mar 2013.
. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em_VV0-8pH0. .

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