Finite element method to solve engineering problems using ansys

Abstract

The Finite Element Analysis method, is a powerful computational technique for approximate solutions to a variety of real – world engineering problems having complex domains subjected to general boundary conditions. The method itself has become an essential step in the design or modelling of a physical phenomenon in various engineering disciplines. A physical phenomenon usually occurs in a continuum of matter (solid, liquid or gas) involving several field variables. The field variables vary from point to point, thus possessing an infinite number of solutions in the domain. The basis of finite volume method relies on the decomposition of the domain into a finite number of subdomains (elements) for which the systematic approximate solution is constructed by applying the variational or weighted residual methods. In effect, finite volume method reduces the problem to that of a finite number of unknowns by dividing the domain into elements and by expressing the unknown field variable in term of the assumed approximating functions within each element.