Nonlinear FEA the Smart Way: Designing Beyond the Obvious

Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Lukasz Skotny

Tutor biography

Hey, my name is Łukasz Skotny. I studied civil engineering in the Wrocław University of Technology, where I’ve made a Ph.D. in the field of shell stability. I’ve been an academic teacher for a decade in the field of designing structural steel structures. Parallel to my Ph.D. I started my first design company (structural field). Right now, Enterfea is a leading company in the region providing high-end Nonlinear FEA designs to our Customers. At the same time, I’m running a blog, and I offer online and offline training in Finite Element Analysis and Structural Design. Privately I have a wonderful wife, and 4 awesome kids. I like miniature wargaming (mostly Warhammer), reading good fantasy books and snowboarding (in winter) and rollerblading (in summer).

Seminar details

The seminar will cover following topics:

• Introduction To Nonlinear FEA

• Difference between Linear and Nonlinear Analysis
• Problems with establishing realistic outcomes in Linear FEA
• What can be nonlinear in your models

• Understanding how things work

• What Nonlinear Material does
• What Nonlinear Geometry does
• What are the practical implications

• Running your Nonlinear Analysis

• How Nonlinear Solver works, and what it means to you
• How to properly set Nonlinear Analysis
• Dealing with non-convergence
• Different Steering options in Nonlinear Solvers

• Understanding Outcomes of Nonlinear Analysis

• How to establish capacity based on nonlinear analysis

All the above will be explained in a purely practical manner without much theory. Most explanations will be done on simple examples attendants will be welcomed to try for themselves.

What will you learn?

You will gain knowledge and understanding about Nonlinear FEA analysis. What things can be nonlinear, why that is the case, and what this implies to practical design. You will also learn how to properly set up nonlinear solver, how to deal with common non-convergence problems and what to expect. But what is perhaps most important is, that you will learn how to interpret outcomes of nonlinear FEA analysis in design scenarios.

What questions will this course answer?

What is Nonlinear FEA?

What can be Nonlinear, and what this means in practical setting?

How to properly setup and run Nonlinear FEA analysis?

How to post-process outcomes to establish capacity of your model.

Who should attend?

Everyone is welcome to attend. The seminar will be most interesting for

• Civil, Structural, Mechanical, Aerospace and Naval engineers required to perform capacity design of various (mostly metal) systems with the use of Finite Element Analysis.
• Project managers dealing with FEA done by others, and willing to deepen their understanding of the field (and what to pay attention to when assessing if the analysis is what was needed).
• Academic researcher trying to build their own FEA models.