Teaching Finite Element Analysis for Mechanical Undergraduate Students

Abstract

since 2001 with 14 years of prior full time industrial experience. He has worked in the design of various technologies from advanced underwater and ultrahigh altitude propulsion systems to automated manufacturing equipment. His interests include advanced thermal and mechanical system design for green power generation.

FEM education in undergraduate studies: Industry‐informed research

“…The survey results suggest that introducing the FEM procedure with the DSM may be sufficient for an undergraduate course. This is the path followed in several courses [21, 31]. Others continue the detailed derivation of 2D and 3D structural elements with the potential energy approach [2].…”

“…Since solving FEM problems by hand is limited to a few simple elements [3], computer programs complement the theoretical part of the coursework [6]. Three schemes can be identified: (a) have the students develop their own FEM solver using Matlab or other programming tools [2,8,31]; (b) provide educational programs that allow the student to understand, and even modify, the operation of a FEM solver [5,11,14,38,40], and (c) use commercial software, either basic FEA modules included in CAD software [21,36,41], or in-depth FEM codes [16,19,39,42].…”

“…Surveys are among the most frequently used methods for educational research [18,25,27,29]. In the context of FEM education, questionnaires are broadly used to measure the impact of different educational factors on students' learning [1,21,37]. Besides the assessment of students' experience, involving actual practitioners from the industry enables the alignment of learning outcomes to corporate requirements.…”

“…Thus, some people prefer to cover not only FEM theory but also the principles of strength of materials [31] or combine theory and practice with solid mechanics experiments [16]. Compared to an application‐focused course, blending FEM theory with software utilization seems to improve students' comprehension of FEA software [21]. The finite element procedure is generally introduced by applying the Direct Stiffness Method (DSM) to one‐dimensional (1D) elements, followed by the potential energy method to derive the stiffness matrices of two‐dimensional (2D) elements for structural and thermal problems [2].…”

Appropriate and Ethical Finite Element Analysis in Mechanical Engineering: Learning Best Practices Through Simulation

“…This can be addressed by introducing finite element analysis either through activities in multiple classes (Howard et al 2001), emphasis in a single class (Pike, 2001), or by a standalone course that focuses on the implementation of commercial software (Le et al 2019). However, recent work suggests that teaching the fundamentals of the finite element method helps students employ FEA through commercial software (Le et al, 2019, Smith andDavis, 2017).…”