ME 522
Project Description
You will need to complete a project for 50% of your grade in this class.
You will pick a project of your own, and you may work with one partner if
you wish.
Since this is the second class, the projects should be more challenging than
those you chose for the introductory class, and you will choose it sooner.
Projects generally fall into two catagories:
• Doing a finite element analysis of something
• Writing a small finite element program (but NOT a mesh generator)
If you choose to do a finite element analysis of something, try to pick something that interests you for some reason. If you can’t think of anything on
your own, you can meet with me and we can throw around some ideas. If
you choose to write a small finite element program, I have some books that
can give you more information.
The project will be graded based on a report that you submit. For a
finite element analysis of something, a report might contain the following:
• Cover Page (title, authors, course, year)
• Introduction (What general problem are we examining, and why?)
• Model (Define the problem in more detail. What approximations are
necessary? Your estimate of the results can go in a subsection here or
in the results.)
• Finite Element Model (How do we reduce the problem to finite elements? What meshes will we use? What elements?)
• Results and Discussion (What finite element results did we get? Do
they agree with reasonable estimates or approximations?)
• Summary and Conclusions (Summarize what you found out, indicate
any areas that need additional study, draw some conclusions.)
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For a small finite element program, you still need a report. The report might
contain:
• Cover Page (title, authors, course, year)
• Introduction (What type of program are we attempting to write?)
• Program Structure (Describe the overall structure of the program.)
• Program Validation (What test cases have you run to test that the program is working correctly, and how do you know that those answers are
correct? Each test case should have its own subsection which contains
a problem definition, the finite element results, and the comparison
solution.)
• Summary and Conclusions (Summarize what you found out, indicate
any areas that need additional study, draw some conclusions.)
Keep in mind that three of the overall objectives for this course are that
students will
• Check their answers.
• Be able to identify the modeling assumptions inherent in their analysis.
• Perform a finite element analysis which is appropriate to the problem.
Hence, I am looking for evidence of this in your project work and documentation.
Grading Guidelines
• A: Finite element analysis appears complete and correct. Hand calculation or other method used to validate the finite element analysis is
also complete and correct, and confirms the FEA. Presentation of the
material is thorough, with pictures, diagrams, equations, and references
used where appropriate. Problem considered was sufficiently challenging to warrant a finite element analysis. (Note: 2-student teams are
expected to do twice as much as an individual student.)
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• B: Finite element analysis appears complete and correct, and hand
calculation is also complete and correct (confirms FEA). Presentation
of the material is less thorough, making it more difficult to understand
the analysis. Although FEA appears correct, the reader is left with
unanswered questions that might affect the assessment of the analyis.
(For example, unsymmetric deflections occur for unknown reasons or
unusual stresses are not discussed explicitly.) Another reason for a B
grade is if the project was a 2-person team and did not accomplish as
much as they should have.
• C: Finite element analysis appears complete and correct, and is described clearly. However, the hand calculation (while clearly described)
is not appropriate for the FEA or is not interpreted correctly. For example, a static analysis is used to check a transient solution or a normal
stress hand calculation used to check a shear stress FEA solution.
• D: A finite element analysis is presented, and the problem is somewhat clearly defined. However, the validation is incomplete, missing,
or incorrect. Or, the finite element analysis itself is unnecessary for the
problem as presented, or is clearly incorrect.
• F: It is not possible to understand from the report what was analyzed,
and whether the results were correct.
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