Previous Issues

ABSTRACT

Design of machinery or bulky structural components often necessitates the use of three dimensional (3-D) analysis. When using the finite element method (FEM) the first step is to select a suitable mesh to be used for the analysis. This study is about the effects of element aspect ratio and the type of element used on the accuracy of the solution. The well known “STRUDL” finite element package is used in this study in order to perform 3-D analysis where four elements from STRUDL element library were exclusively used. Three examples with known solution according to the theory of elasticity were employed in order to quantify the errors resulting from the application of the FEM. Attention is focused on 3-D discretization of long members where the dimension along the member axis is one order of magnitude higher than the cross-sectional dimensions. The conclusions drawn are limited to the applications solved; however, the study gives some idea about the order of magnitude of the errors involved in 3-D analysis for similar structures.