Engineering Analysis with Finite Elements - LS-DYNA for Undergraduate Student

A typical college course in finite elements consists of learning the method in continuum mechanics (transient heat conduction and elastic stress analysis), from formulation of the governing equations to implementation in some software (such as Fortran or Matlab). This class is not such a course. Instead, this class concentrates on analyzing engineering systems; a challenging task regularly done by design engineers. Finite elements is the tool of choice for performing such analysis for many, many applications and corporations. Structural stress, heat transfer, fluid flow, and modal analysis are quite distinct from each other but can all be treated successfully with finite elements. Of course, some basic principles of the finite element method is required, as well as understanding of behavior, sensitivity and robustness relative to mesh density, boundary conditions, material properties and other influential parameters. But the emphasis is on the engineering analysis itself, not the tool. LS-DYNA is well suited for this endeavor because of its’ multi-physics capabilities.