Solyndra – An Avoidable Business and Government Failure
With its combination of solar and cylinder, the “O” with rays striking it, and the tag line, “The new shape of solar,” marketing for Solyndra’s unique tubular module design was at the top of the class. Why did it fail? Figure 1: Solyndra’s design is evident in this panel with cylindrical modules and simple mounting […]
Are You New to Finite Element Analysis?
ARE YOU NEW to FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS? We’ve Got You Covered! You probably have a few questions and concerns: Is FEA Reliable? Can I Trust the Results? The best insurance against errors in Finite Element Analysis – or any other branch of engineering – is by employing experienced professionals. And not just experienced pros in […]
The Impact of Finite Element Analysis on Medical Device Design
Published online: 6 June 2018 © Taiwanese Society of Biomedical Engineering 2018 Over the last few years, medical device design has vastly benefited from the integration of finite element analyses in the product development process. The finite element method (FEM) is a numerical method used to solve boundary value problems. This method adopts an approach […]
Cheap Design and Cheap Analysis Turns out to be Very Expensive in The Long Run!
Too often, finite element analysis looks like a magic tool requiring little or no experience to generate in-depth, complex, and highly refined results. This line of thinking will have disastrous results. A recent conversation with another engineering analyst regarding design work done in China. Design for assembly and design for manufacturing was not addressed. Cheap […]
Computerized Wind Tunnel – A Successful Test
Recently, I was hired to design a low-velocity shotgun slug fired from a non-rifled, smooth-bore barrel. The bullet would be manufactured entirely from injection molded elastomer, and would be used as a nonlethal bullet at very short range and very low, subsonic velocity. As a plastic solid, it would be inexpensive to manufacture. Fired from […]
Implicit vs Explicit Analysis Methods
Implicit vs Explicit Methods What’s the difference between Implicit and explicit in FEA? One question that arises in impact and collision analysis is which solver to use under which circumstances? It has been my experience that the explicit solver is best for impacts and collisions. an explanation follows. In static analysis, there is no effect of […]
The Benefits of Fluid Simulation
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is an engineering method for simulating the behavior of systems, processes and equipment involving flow of gases and liquids, heat and mass transfer, chemical reactions and related physical phenomena. More specifically CFD, or fluid simulation, can be used to calculate pressure drops through flow meters, valves, etc. predict aerodynamic lift or […]
Washington Kills its Killer Drone Fleet
From The Daily Beast 2-11-16 Cutting-edge killer drones will not be flying over the world’s oceans any time soon. The Defense Department’s budget proposal for 2017, released on Feb. 9, terminates an on-again, off-again program dating back to the late 1990s that aimed to develop a bomb-hauling robotic jet capable of launching from and landing […]
Classic Methods or FEA – Which is Better?
The short answer – It depends on what you need. The big question is how to decide between the two. As far as time goes, both methods can be quick or slow, and resource-dependent. Finite element analysis can do everything that classical analysis is capable of doing, but the reverse is not true. Occasionally, I […]