What is finite element analysis, or FEA, and why should we use it?
FEA is computer based simulation of structures. Appropriate use of finite element analysis (FEA) helps Prospect provide clients with the right solution at the right price in the right timescale. One significant advantage offered by FEA is the ability to explore the behaviour of a structure in the virtual world where designs and changes to them are cheapest to evaluate. It provides insight to a level of detail that is very difficult to replicate in the real world. Prospect deploy FEA in a number of ways and the word appropriate above is very deliberate. The complexity of the FEA undertaken is a matter of experience and judgement. In the modern era where high performance computing is readily available there is a temptation to over complicate FEA. Prospect maintains the philosophy of using a level of complexity appropriate to the task in hand. This ranges from simple linear-elastic beam element analysis of frames to non-linear analyses including large displacement theory, contact, frictio
