FAE/EAM software/training recommendations for non-engineers?

DMS General
#1

Given the cross section of folks @ DMS, I reckon this should get several opinions, if not some solid info.
I am an under-educated/beginner “engineer” (read “likes to tinker, has flights of fancy”).
Among the tools “serious engineers” need to learn to use these days appears to be Element Analysis Method (EAM) aka Finite Element Analysis (FEA) tools (software).

Given that I am:

  1. amateur
  2. cheep
  3. not really an engineer
    I wonder what experiences more knowledgeable folks might have regarding FAE software, preferably provided with DMS membership for member use, or freeware for home use.

As a pretend project, let’s say I have an air compressor with an existing pulley of known material and size, and I want to design a pulley for my drive motor. I have drawn a CAD representation of what I think I want, including the mounted motor on the compressor, but I need to know if I can make it out of various materials (e.g. if I make it from cast AL will it be strong enough?) or how much of a material (how thick should the “spokes” be if made from sheet/plate steel…)

Thank you once more for entertaining n00b5 like me. I appreciate any info/opinions.

PS here is some of what I found, for an example, but have not yet tried out:
http://lisafea.com/
(is 1300 “nodes” enough?)
http://www.caelinux.com/CMS/
(got it, just working up a VM to run it…who doesn’t need more RAM?)

PPS any mention of educational opportunities (to teach me to use one of the recommended or available tools) would also be welcome!

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#2

I’d like to learn this stuff, too!

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#3

Andrew,

This is one of the FEA Multiphysics Simulators I used in research:

http://www.comsol.com/

It is a bit involved, probably not cheap (but then again for a non-profit like DMS, who knows unless one asks) but it is amazing in it’s coverage and capability; complete engineering porn.

As an aside for some freeware FEAs, if you look at the Comsol entry in Wikipedia, they do have a list towards the bottom under Alternative Software. Take a look:

Otherwise, I do things like study previous designs to get an idea of what is considered acceptable/typical industry practice, research online, and have really cool reference books like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Building-Scientific-Apparatus-John-Moore/dp/0521878586/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1432187400&sr=8-1&keywords=building+scientific+apparatus

Older engineering books can be very useful at giving guidelines and material suggestions for the construction of a machine.

The other thing I do is a kind of aboriginal “walkabout” of a hardware - building supplies store looking for inspiration. I have often constructed something completely from scratch by cobbling together several items that catch my eye and then my imagination begins to configure and converge the visual input into an idea and a design that is functional.

You can overanalyze anything to death; I believe in effectiveness and common sense from multidisciplinary experience.

JAG “Incan Monkey Gods Guide My Torque Wrench Specs” MAN

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#4

COMSOL is very, very cool. Wish I had a chance to use it more.

#5

I would strongly second the recommendation for this book! Unfortunately I no longer have my copy since I loaned it out and it was never returned.

#6

Autodesk Inventor (What we have on the JUMP server) includes some VERY basic FEA capabilities, but for getting a start it should be sufficient. There’s also some FOSS packages although I’m not familiar with the mechanical side of things. If anyone is interested in fluids (CFD) however, let me know. I use a FOSS package that is very good and (in my opinion) can complete fairly well with COMSOL and ANSYS.

#7

Code Aster

This open source package might be worth looking into.

#8

I’ve used Salome-Meca which is the related meshing software. The interface was excruciatingly slow, but other than that it was fairly usable. If Code_Aster’s post processing is anything like this, I would recommend Paraview to view results.

Edit: and possibly gmsh for meshing instead of Salome-Meca

#9

I realized today that, despite the fact that I have been exploring your suggestions, I haven’t yet thanked you for weighing in here.
So, thank you to each of you for throwing you experiences out there for me. I haven’t really had an opportunity yet to formulate further questions, but I have been looking at the suggested materials and may come back with follow-ups.

Thank you again!

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