Applied Finite Element Methods: Lecture Notes on Principles and Procedures

The primary purpose of this work is to serve as lecture notes for a first university course on the finite element method. The target student is a first-year graduate student in engineering or engineering mechanics. Senior undergraduate students may also find the material accessible. A secondary purpose is to serve as a desktop reference and learning tool for practicing engineers.Chapter 1 introduces basic concepts and terminology. Chapter 2 is focused on one-dimensional finite element analysis in engineering mechanics: truss and bar elements. Chapter 3 considers two- and three-dimensional problems involving beam and frame elements. Chapter 4 addresses planar problems in continuum elasticity and heat transfer. Chapter 5 covers axisymmetric analysis of static problems in the same subjects. Chapter 6 describes dynamic or time-dependent analysis. Each main chapter besides the first contains example problems solved analytically or numerically via use of the ANSYS software package.This publication emerged out of lecture notes used in a one-semester course on Applied Finite Element Methods at the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA. Content consists of course notes, computer examples, and problem sets converted to manuscript format. As such, the presentation in much of the book is informal, and figures, while adequate for the current purpose, have not been professionally rendered.