Introduction to Practical FEA

Duration: 15 hours

Tools: MSC Apex

Contents:

  •  Introduction to CAE in Automotive Industry

  • Typical Challenges and Regulations

  • Product Development Cycle

  • The need for CAE simulations

Introduction to Finite Element Method

  • The Equilibrium Equations

  • Displacement and Energy Method

  • Element Stiffness Matrix for Various Topologies

  • How is the Stiffness Matrix Assembled?

  • How are FEM equations solved?

  • Difference Between Linear & Nonlinear FEA

Preparing Model for the analysis

Introduction to MSC Apex

  • User Interface

  • Model Management

  • Display controls

  • Documentation Access

  • Tutorials

Introduction to MSC Apex Preprocessor-Geometry Manipulation

  • The need for CAD manipulation

  • Basic Sketching tools

  • CAD Repair and Clean up

  • Mid-surfacing extraction

  • Defeaturing tools

  • Geometry partitioning and splitting

  • Vertex/Edge drag tool

  • CAD from Mesh

  • Surfaces stitching and extending

  • CAD Export

Introduction to MSC Apex Preprocessor-Meshing tools

  • Why different Types of Elements

  • 0D elements

  • 1D elements

  • 2D elements (Quad and Tri elements)

  • 3D elements (2.5D Hex and Tetra elements)

High order elements explained

Meshing quality definitions

  • Skewness

  • Warpage

  • Jacopian

Mesh export to FEA solvers

Advanced Meshing Methods

Advanced meshing controls

  • Mesh solid geometry with hex elements using multi-cut and multi-sweep approach

Linear Analysis in The Automotive Industry

  • Linear Static analysis example

  • Introduction to Linear Dynamics

  • Body frame and suspension components case study (with MSC Adams)

  • Composite Panel (Optional)

Introduction to FEA postprocessing

  • Sanity checks

  • Animate structural deformations and contour changes

  • Utilize a Results Manager to explore analysis

  • View colorful fringe contours of physical quantities of interest, such as displacements, stresses, strains, etc.

  • Demonstrate vector plots of displacements, applied loads, constraint reactions, and more variables.

Advanced Postprocessing

  • Create sensors and monitor responses at specific locations, such as displacements and stresses

  • Bulk Data File (.bdf) explained.

 

MSC Apex - Frequency Response