Syllabus academic year 2011/2012
(Created 2011-09-01.)
THE FINITE ELEMENT METHOD - FLOW ANALYSISVSMN25
Credits: 7,5. Grading scale: TH. Cycle: A (Second Cycle). Main field: Technology. Language of instruction: The course might be given in English. VSMN25 overlaps following cours/es: FHL064, VSM040 and VSMN05. Compulsory for: Pi4bs. Optional for: MWLU2, Pi4, V4at, V4ko, V5vr, W5vr. Course coordinator: Kent Persson, kent.persson@byggmek.lth.se, Structural Mechanics. Prerequisites: FMA430 Calculus in Several Dimensions. The course might be cancelled if the number of applicants is less than 15. Assessment: A mid-term test and two design assignments. Home page: http://www.byggmek.lth.se.

Aim
The aim of the course is to give detailed theoretical and practical knowledge on the basic steps in the finite element method and to be able to model and analyse general flow problems described from a physical context. Common problems within the field of engineering will be studeied, such as, heat flow, pipe network flow, ground water flow and diffusion for both stationary and transient conditions.

Knowledge and understanding
For a passing grade the student must

Skills and abilities
For a passing grade the student must

Judgement and approach
For a passing grade the student must

Contents
The course consists of lectures, exercise sessions and two compulsory design assignments. In the first part of the course a detailed derivation of all the steps in the finite element formulation are given for a one-dimensional heat flow problem: direct approach, strong and weak formulations, approximating functions and weighted residual methods. More advanced problems are gradually added to this basic knowledge, such as, 2- and 3-dimensional field problems. Flow problems that are studied: heat flow, pipe network flow, groundwater flow and diffusion. At the end of the course the theory is extended to the study of transient field-problems. The design assignments illustrate the procedure of transferring a design problem into a model suitable for finite element analysis.

Literature
Ottosen, N. & Petersson, H.: Introduction to the Finite Element Method. Prentice Hall, 1992.
Olsson, K.-G and Heyden S.: Introduction to the finite element method, problems. Structural Mechanics, Lund 2001.
CALFEM ver 3.4 - A finite element toolbox, KFS i Lund AB, 2004.