SE143B Finite Element Modeling and Analysis FAQ
Welcome to the SE143B FAQ. This site collects practical guidance for setting up, running, and troubleshooting your structural FE models in Abaqus.
Use the navigation on the left to find answers by topic.
Tutorials
1. Aerodynamic Loading of a Wing
This tutorial covers how to take the aerodynamic load demand from your V-n diagram, translate it into a spatially varying pressure field using Shrenk's approximation, and apply it to your wing model in Abaqus using Expression Fields and Surface Tractions.
2. Natural Frequency Analysis of Wing
This tutorial walks through the analytical prediction of natural frequencies for a uniform cantilever wing modeled as a thin-walled beam. We treat the wing as having a constant cross-section along its span — the uniform assumption — which lets us derive exact (or nearly exact) closed-form expressions for each vibration mode.
3. Linear Buckling Analysis of Wing
This tutorial introduces structural buckling — the sudden loss of load-carrying shape that governs the design of thin, compressed structures like wing skins and spar caps. Unlike strength failures, buckling is a stiffness-driven instability: a structure can buckle well below its material yield stress, which makes it the critical design constraint in lightweight aerospace structures.
This tutorial characterizes the three cross-sectional properties that govern bending-torsion flutter of a uniform wing: the elastic center (stiffness-weighted centroid), the mass-weighted centroid (section CG), and the shear center (zero-twist load point).
Play around with plate buckling mode shapes for a SSSS plate.
Topics
Finite Element Analysis Overview
A quick overview of how FEA works, what it can and can't do, and the key decisions you need to make before building any model.
A step-by-step framework: define objectives, start simple, check convergence, and validate your results.
Element type selection, mesh controls, local refinement strategies, and how to verify mesh quality.
Applying pressure loads, line loads, distributed moments, and contact interactions.
How do you perform simple analysis of your model.
Eigenvalue and Buckling Analysis
Setting up a natural frequency (eigenvalue) analysis, including the critical density unit conversion.
Viewing and Extracting Results
Path plots, section forces, reaction forces, ply-by-ply composites results, and display settings.
Additional Websites to visits!
Fixing convergence errors, imported geometry problems, and other common issues.