Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this work is to show how a series of laboratories can be used to provide students with a process that will allow them to become efficient and effective users of commercial finite element software. The series of laboratories starts with the study of the beam theory and analytical solutions for deflections and stresses of a cantilever beam that can be used as “exact solutions”. Then a solution for the same problem is obtained implementing the finite element method (FEM) in a Matlab code. This ensures that students understand the basic concepts of the FEM. The next step is to use different types of elements in finite element analyses (FEA) implemented in commercial software. Advantages of simple elements must be identified by students. Convergence of results towards exact values as the number of degrees of freedom in finite element model is increased must also be noted by students. Finally, experiments are carried out to validate the FEA results. Thus, this work presents a well-integrated "lab example" that includes Matlab programming, finite element modelling and use of commercial FEM software, as well as physical verification using test equipment and sample beam.

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