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

[mscheepers at saice.org.za]

Please Note: This email was sent on behalf of the SAICE Education and
Training Department. For more information on the matter, please contact
Dawn Hermanus on dhermanus at saice.org.za

 

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. SAICEstr09/00449/12 and participants will
receive 5 credit points.

 

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

 

To register for the course, please contact Dawn Hermanus at SAICE (011)
805-5947

or   <mailto:mftcomputing at global.co.za> dhermanus at saice.org.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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 




The Application of the

Finite Element Method in Practice

 

Course presented by

Roland Prukl, Pr.Eng.

 <mailto:mftcomputing at global.co.za> mftcomputing at global.co.za

 

 <http://www.finiteelements.net/> www.FiniteElements.Net

 



 

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://bm-01.vm.gam.co.za/pipermail/saice/attachments/20091116/fbff1b74/attachment-0001.htm 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/png
Size: 190484 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://bm-01.vm.gam.co.za/pipermail/saice/attachments/20091116/fbff1b74/attachment-0001.png 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 61842 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://bm-01.vm.gam.co.za/pipermail/saice/attachments/20091116/fbff1b74/attachment-0001.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 44271 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://bm-01.vm.gam.co.za/pipermail/saice/attachments/20091116/fbff1b74/attachment-0002.jpeg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 58023 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://bm-01.vm.gam.co.za/pipermail/saice/attachments/20091116/fbff1b74/attachment-0003.jpeg