FEA Tips and tricks

Tip: Simplify the FEA model and its procedure as much as possible based on physics

Simplification can be done in lots of ways but always focus it step-by-step:

• Domain: Simplify the domain (geometry) based on analysis requirement
• Material: Add complexities only if required, use hand calculations and published papers to judge the required material model and avoid iterations
• Discretization: Use the right tool, discretize more only at the area of interest, target to control the nodes, keep an eye on quality parameters, optimize the count of nodes
• External Load: Use pen & paper to draw a sketch of the simplified domain and apply boundary conditions, try to visualize (imagine) the response of domain, if possible invest half an hour to run a practical on whole of domain or parts as convenient. This will eliminate unnecessary inputs.
• Solver: Treat your FEA tool only as a calculator, keep control of its parameters (solver parameters) and if not skilled then at-least make yourself aware of its definition. This will simplify the solution method.
• Results: Verify the trends using the predicted responses in "External Load" step, observe the animations multiple times, compute as many results as required to relate to the concepts and the theory predicted for response.
• Report: Document all above steps in any format suitable even if the analysis is unsuccessful.