Finite Element Analysis

 

The finite element method is a technique that can be used to predict the behaviour of materials and components. It has been used in many ways including:

• Determining if a component will fail or not

• Finding the highly stressed areas or weak points in design to help improve the design

• Optimising a manufacturing process, such as determining the optimal heat treatment to maximise strength and reduce spring-back in metal forming processes

• Finding out mechanisms and causes that lead to a certain behaviour, where direct measurements with experiments are impossible or hard to achieve

Finite element analysis can be thought of as virtual experiments that are being performed. It can be cheaper and faster than performing experiments as there are no-cost of machining components and setting up requirements. It is a great tool for preliminary studies for validating concepts and improving designs before prototyping or manufacturing.

 

At General Analytics Ltd, we are able to set up and run finite element simulations to help you study design or manufacturing processes. We are also able to perform analyses, interpret the results and provide recommendations.

 

Codes for Custom Materials in Commercial Finite Element Analysis Software

 

Commercial finite element analysis software usually has a library of materials to select from. However, there are materials with less common behaviour and to model parts with these materials, FEA software requires users to write their own code for the material. General Analytics Ltd can help write codes to describe material behaviour for common FEA software (i.e VUMAT and UMAT for Abaqus*). Just let us know which material you want to simulate or provide us with experimental results and we will do the rest.

 

Technical Report Writing

 

General Analytics Ltd has the expertise to interpret data (experimental or otherwise) and perform additional analyses to strengthen the experimental results. We offer to write technical reports and prepare presentation slides for experimental and analytical studies.

 

Other Services

 

• Phase-field Modelling

• Finite Difference and Finite Volume Simulations

• Parametric Studies

• Computational Fluid Dynamics

• Review of the Scientific Literature

• Technical Report Translation

• Mechanical Testing

 

* We do not have a license for Abaqus and will be using our own Fortran code to validate the UMAT or VUMAT subroutine. Customers may provide license or arrangements can be made for us to buy a license if required.