ABSTRACT
The finite element method has emerged as the most powerful numerical technique ever devised to analyze practical engineering structures. The method is endowed with a basic feature, divide the whole into parts that are simple to work with [1–5], which makes the method applicable to a variety of physical phenomena, and enables the development of general purpose computer programs that can be used for any geometry, physically meaningful boundary conditions, and loading. However, many of the modeling considerations, such as the selection of the element and mesh used, and problem formulative efforts depend, among other things, on a good understanding of the physics of the problem being analyzed, the required accuracy, the available computational resources, and the intended use of results. Ultimately, the finite element results are only as accurate as one’s physical and numerical representation of the problem. A realistic representation of the actual problem will yield a very good correlation between the analysis results and experimental data.
