ABSTRACT
Before the advent of finite element analysis (FEA) technology, the only design/analysis tools available to engineers for accurately predicting the behavior of a component or system were scientific and mathematical equations, applied to simplified systems, and testing models. The difficulty the analytic (mathematical) approach caused for design engineers and analysts rested in the fact that they still had to run the component or system through a whole battery of tests to verify its calculated behavior, resulting, in many cases, in repetitive prototype building and testing. The end result was often a slow, resource-intensive design process. If only there were a way to see how a design behaves before the prototype was built.
