Finite Elementes

This book provides several applications of the finite element method (FEM) for solving real-world problems. This book describes the development of FEM and discusses and illustrates its specific applications.

The two volumes of this book cover most of the theoretical and computational aspects of the linear static analysis of structures with the Finite Element Method (FEM). The content of the book is based on the lecture notes of a basic course on Structural Analysis with the FEM taught by the author at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) in Barcelona, Spain for the last 30 years.

The finite element method is often used for numerical computation in the applied sciences. It makes a major contribution to the range of numerical methods used in the simulation of systems and irregular domains, and its importance today has made it an important subject of study for all engineering students.

Over the past several years, significant advances have been made in developing the discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for applications in fluid flow and heat transfer. Certain unique features of the method have made it attractive as an alternative for other popular methods such as finite volume and finite elements in thermal fluids engineering analyses. This book is written as an introductory textbook on the discontinuous finite element method for senior undergraduate and graduate students in the area of thermal science and fluid dynamics. It also can be used as a reference book for researchers and engineers who intend to use the method for research in computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer. A good portion of this book has been used in a course for computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer for senior undergraduate and first year graduate students. It also has been used by some graduate students for self-study of the basics of discontinuous finite elements. This monograph assumes that readers have a basic understanding of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and heat transfer and some background in numerical analysis. Knowledge of continuous finite elements is not necessary but will be helpful. The book covers the application of the method for the simulation of both macroscopic and micro/nanoscale fluid flow and heat transfer phenomena.

This volume demonstrates the use of FORTRAN for numerical computing in the context of the finite element method. FORTRAN is still an important programming language for computational mechanics and all classical finite element codes are written in this language, some of them even offer an interface to link user-code to the main program. This feature is especially important for the development and investigation of new engineering structures or materials. Thus, this volume gives a simple introduction to programming of elasto-plastic material behavior, which is, for example, the prerequisite for implementing new constitutive laws into a commercial finite element program.

This volume on some recent aspects of finite element methods and their applications is dedicated to Ulrich Langer and Arnd Meyer on the occasion of their 60th birthdays in 2012. Their work combines the numerical analysis of finite element algorithms, their efficient implementation on state of the art hardware architectures, and the collaboration with engineers and practitioners. In this spirit, this volume contains contributions of former students and collaborators indicating the broad range of their interests in the theory and application of finite element methods.

Finite element methods have become ever more important to engineers as tools for design and optimization, now even for solving non-linear technological problems. However, several aspects must be considered for finite-element simulations which are specific for non-linear problems: These problems require the knowledge and the understanding of theoretical foundations and their finite-element discretization as well as algorithms for solving the non-linear equations.