What are the best ways to integrate FEA into the Automotive Engineering curriculum?

FEA is a vast subject by itself and incorporating FEA into curriculum should be well planned. According to me, simplicity/complexity should vary depending on what level the curriculum is designed for (diploma, bachelors, masters, PhD) Also, along with the theoretical background of the subject. It is very important that the students gets a hands-on on a “real case scenario” where they will learn the true challenges of the FEA and understand the limitations of it completely.

Before engineering students start using FEA, they had better understand the math and the physics that FEA can model. A background in solid mechanics and differential equations is important. An FEA analyst should be able to bound his/her simulation on the back of an envelope with closed form solutions from Roark & Young and Peterson.

Finite Element Analysis software are powerful tools essential for engineers aiming to achieve an optimised design. However can easily lead to wrong conclusion if not used correctly. There are several FEA software tools available which can be learned in due time. The Engineering curriculum must have focus on the academic understanding of the mathematics and physics behind the software tool use. That should be the main focus of academic curriculum.

Instead of building and testing various prototypes and spending budget in the process, FEA is becoming essential to predict weaknesses on proposed designs. Virtual design assessment allow reduction of prototype cost and efficient design selection and evaluation.

Students can learn different ways, especially regarding theory learning. Practice can only be achieved by training through case studies or real life challenges. Multiple case studies incorporated to Engineering Curriculum will foster FEA knowledge on students.

Automotive is about learning how cars work, what components there are, how they are assembled, etc. FEA is used for the design of all technical components, i.e., for all technical disciplines and all components. FEA helps to check the strength or process of construction of each component, whether the component can withstand the external or internal load, environmental load, heat, flow, current, air, fluid quantity, fatigue, crack, dynamic load, etc. FEA must be learned independently because there is so much content. FEA is used in all engineering subjects, but if we integrate FEA directly into one subject, we miss out on focusing on all areas of the other subject.

The purpose of analysis is insight, not answers. Use FEA simulations to develop the verification test and use the results of any tests to refine the analysis. There are too many variables to model them all or to consider the variation contribution of each.

Solve real world automobile physics problems via FEA simulation. We can start with a simple component level simulation like Gears, rotor shafts to vehicle level bending or Torsional stiffness simulations etc.