ABSTRACT
The finite element method, initially developed in 1960s, is the most widely used discretization method in computational mechanics. There are other methods also in use in computational continuum mechanics; the finite difference method has been in use long before the introduction of the finite element method, and meshless method has been introduced more recently. The finite element discretization approach is a general method that is used to solve linear and nonlinear problems in many fields, including structural mechanics, heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and electromagnetic field problems. In this chapter, we will briefly review the application of the finite element method in structural solid mechanics. We will first describe some of the most commonly used types of finite elements. We will follow this with a discussion of shape functions leading to the development of element stiffness matrices. The presentation in this chapter is a brief review and it is by no means comprehensive. We start by the assumption that the reader is already familiar with the finite element method and here we are just presenting a brief review.
