A solution to memory limit of DOS based large finite element programs

Abstract

In this paper a novel interface method to overcome the memory problem of large finite element (FE) DOS based programs is described. The developed method uses the hard disk as an integral part of the system memory. The method is implemented in C and offers high efficiency in terms of speed, memory size and floating point accuracy. The method is assessed using a steady-state two dimensional FE model for solving banded based problems. Three noded triangular finite elements are used. The proposed method has been implemented successfully to solve problems of up to 6000 elements and 4500 nodes on an IBM-AT computer with only a 640 K memory.