[Saice] The Application of the Finite Element Method in Practice: Course Schedule

Thu Feb 5 10:17:19 SAST 2009

A Weapon of Mass Destruction in the Arsenal of the Structural Engineer?

As with the military equivalent, the Structural Engineer's own WMD is
too little understood and there is all too often a tendency for it to be
used freely by people who do not fully appreciate the possible dangers.

Finite Element Analysis has been around for some 40 years, and has been
the primary tool in engineering some magnificent projects, but has also
- inadvertently - been responsible for some spectacular failures!

As with any tool, the proper use of FEA requires a thorough
understanding.  The question is what is it that has to be understood?
Opinions seem to vary...

Academia will teach you the theory of Finite Element Analysis, and if
you pay attention you will come away from a university course with a
thorough understanding of stiffness matrices, matrix inversions, Barlow
and Gauss points, Cholesky decomposition and a myriad of other very
technical names and procedures!  But you will be little closer to using
FEA correctly as an engineering tool than you were before you wrote your
cheque for the course fees.

After you have given Academia their opportunity, you may go on other
courses - including courses offered by software houses marketing FEA
programmes.  This  will teach you shortcuts on how to create a FE model,
how to produce  colour pictures of stresses, strains, forces and
moments.  You will become an expert in pre-processing and a
post-processor of renown.  

But - you still will not be an effective (or safe) FEA designer.

FEA is full of pitfalls that await the overconfident and unwary, and you
can either learn these by trial and error (and error is where the WMD
analogy might just come true), or you can spend a few days learning how
to correctly use this remarkable tool.

"The Application of the Finite Element Method in Practice" is one of
those rare technical courses in which every aspect is of practical use.
It is a course that was first presented more than twenty years ago and
which has undergone a continuing process of development and improvement
by the author and presenter, Roland Prukl.  Mr Prukl first became
involved in Finite Element Analysis shortly after the method was
developed, and has become an authority on the subject.  His knowledge
not only extends to the theory of FEA, but more importantly to the
practical application.  Over many years he has learned where the
pitfalls are (and they are numerous), how a structure is most
effectively modelled (and why), how to analyse and interpret the output,
and how to watching for the indicators that tell you that you have
realistic answers or a questionable model.  Mr. Prukl also found over
the years many serious errors in a number of well known finite element
programs.

Roland Prukl's course, which has also been presented in Europe and in
Australia, is the only one currently available that guides and helps the
structural engineer in using this design tool, and is essential for
anyone who uses FEA - or who is managing a design team in which FEA is
used. 

This one-week course has been validated  for Continuing Professional
Development  in terms of the requirements by the Engineering Council of
South Africa (ECSA) - No. SAICEstr06/00018/08 and participants will
receive 5 credit points.

Details of the course can be found on www.FiniteElements.Net
<http://www.finiteelements.net/> .

To register for the course, please contact Susie Muller at MFT Computing

(083) 294-4771 or mftcomputing at global.co.za
<mailto:mftcomputing at global.co.za> .

Failure of a silo support structure due to bad detailing of the
connection between two steel beams. Had this detail been properly
analysed it would have revealed that the factor of safety against
buckling was only 0.19.  

After a few relatively minor modifications the factor of safety was
raised to 2.83.

Course dates for 2009

Town

Venue

From

To

Johannesburg

Murray & Roberts (Bedfordview)

2009-02-14

2009-02-20

Johannesburg

Murray & Roberts (Bedfordview)

2009-02-28

2009-03-06

Johannesburg

Murray & Roberts (Bedfordview)

2009-06-06

2009-06-12

Cape Town

Cape Technikon

2009-07-04

2009-07-10

Durban

To be announced

2009-08-15

2009-08-21

Johannesburg

Murray & Roberts (Bedfordview)

2009-11-07

2009-11-13

Johannesburg

Murray & Roberts (Bedfordview)

2009-12-05

2009-12-11

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