Learning Forum

[Adisa]

Hi everyone,

I need your own opinion, whether stress engineer (FEM Analyzer) need to know how to  design construction. Because i want to learn more about FEM, but i do not interested in design construction.

Thank everyone!

Best regards.

[Sandeep Medikonda]

Hello Adisa,

  It is always helpful but not needed. What are the specifics of the problem you are trying to solve? 

An engineer first needs to decide the significant physical phenomena to which the design will be exposed in order to decide what type of analysis should be performed. At the end of the day, irrespective of the problem we are solving the newtons second in any FEA problem while making different assumptions (numerically or physically).

Regards,

Sandeep

[thanhttdt]

Hi Adisa,

I think that without understanding the design, working condition, FEM analyst could not be able to fulfill his task. 

Best Regards,

Thanhtt

[peteroznewman]

Hi Adisa,

An FEM Analyst will be more effective the more he/she knows about design construction. Maybe the Design Engineer doesn't fully describe the construction details and leaves out some detail that the Analyst gets wrong in the model. Maybe that leads to an FEA result that is not conservative and the construction collapses because of this error.

Another scenario is when the initial design FEA model predicts the design is not adequate and changes must be made to the design to meet the requirements. An Analyst who is knowledgeable about design construction will have good ideas about how to change the initial design and can iterate quickly to an optimum design before showing that to the Design Engineer. Without that knowledge, the Analyst has to show the Design Engineer the result of the initial, inadequate design and wait for them to provide a redesign for the next FEA model.

Best regards,

Peter

[Ashish Khemka]

One should have proper understanding of the design/ the purpose/ the big picture as mentioned by everyone above. For instance many time predicting failure using FEA and inferring the consequences of calculated stresses from a structural finite element analysis can be something of a Pandora's Box. Sometimes the analyst doesn't even know the design details , how it will be tested and assume that the applied loading is applied correctly. There is lot of variability involved - in geometry (tolerances), material properties varies even for a given grade of material and the loading conditions. It is always good to understand how close we are to simulate the need.