MAE 4700 - Finite Element Analysis for Mechanical and Aerospace Design

Fall. 3 credits.

Prerequisite: senior standing or permission of instructor. Co-meets with MAE 5700. Evening exams. Term project. Fulfills Senior Design requirement if M.E. seniors enroll in corresponding section of MAE 4291.

Staff.

Introduction to linear finite element static and dynamic analysis for discrete and distributed mechanical and aerospace structures. Prediction of load, deflection, stress, strain, and temperature distributions. Major emphasis on underlying mechanics and numerical methods. Introduction to computational aspects via educational and commercial software (such as MATLAB and ANSYS). Selected mechanical and aerospace applications in the areas of trusses, beams, frames, heat transfer (steady state and transient), and elasticity (static and dynamic).

Outcome 1: Students will understand the mathematical and physical principles underlying the FEM as applied to solid mechanics, dynamics, thermal analysis and fluid mechanics.

Outcome 2: Be able to create his/her own FEM computer programs, for mathematically simple but physically challenging problems, on MATLAB.

Outcome 3: Be able to compare FEM results obtained with MATLAB with those obtained from ANSYS. Analyze more complex problems (in solid mechanics or thermal analysis) using the commercial FEM code ANSYS.

Outcome 4: Demonstrate the ability to design a component using FEM analysis (both MATLAB AND ANSYS).

Outcome 5: Make clear and effective technical presentations, both in terms of form as well as content, of his/her work and write clear technical reports describing his/her work.