ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the performing actual finite element analyses. This involves the following tasks: Discretization of the domain; Assembly of element equations to form the global equations; Application of nodal specifications; Solution of the global equations; Calculation of the secondary dependent variables; Postprocessing of the results; and Interpretation of the results. The goal of the first task is to discretize the domain O as accurately as possible. This is realized by breaking up Ω into a finite number of non-overlapping elements. This process is commonly called meshing; the collection of elements is referred to as a mesh. A high-quality mesh is requisite to convergent and accurate finite element solutions. Discretization errors can be reduced by judiciously changing the size, number or location of the elements in the mesh. This approach is commonly referred to as the h-version of solution refinement. The symbol h represents the size of the finite elements.
