Category Archives: Finite Element Analysis

Retaining wall analysis – FEA and hand calculations

Posted on 17/08/2016 by dougaj4

I have used the PlateMC spreadsheet described in the previous post to compare the results of a finite element analysis of a retaining wall with a similar analysis using the commercial package Strand7, and a simple hand calculation using Coulomb … Continue reading →

Posted in Excel, Finite Element Analysis, Fortran, Frame Analysis, Geotechnical Engineering, Link to dll, Link to Python, Newton, NumPy and SciPy, Strand7, UDFs, VBA | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Plane Strain FEA – Non linear staged analysis

Posted on 13/08/2016 by dougaj4

Continuing the recent series of posts featuring Fortran based FEA routines, the spreadsheet from the previous post has been revised: The spreadsheet allows for a staged analysis, with additional elements placed in layers for any number of construction stages. Temporary loads … Continue reading →

Posted in Beam Bending, Concrete, Excel, Finite Element Analysis, Fortran, Geotechnical Engineering, Link to dll, Link to Python, Newton, NumPy and SciPy, UDFs, VBA | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

PlateStress Update

Posted on 13/08/2016 by dougaj4

The functions from the PlateStress spreadsheet (details here) will be incorporated in the FEA spreadsheets currently being presented. In the process of using these functions I made a couple of improvements: The required sequence of the Gauss Points numbers was clarified: … Continue reading →

Posted in Beam Bending, Excel, Finite Element Analysis, Frame Analysis, Newton, Strand7, UDFs, VBA | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

FEA slope analysis; effect of mesh size

Posted on 31/07/2016 by dougaj4

The last version of the FEA slope analysis spreadsheet (presented here) allows the slope shape and element density to be easily varied.  This post looks at the effect of varying the density from very coarse to fine, with constant soil … Continue reading →

Posted in Excel, Finite Element Analysis, Fortran, Geotechnical Engineering, Link to dll, Link to Python, Newton, VBA | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Linking Excel to Fortran with ctypes; update

Posted on 27/07/2016 by dougaj4

In the previous post arrays were created in Python and passed to a Fortran dll as ctype pointers.  The data written to these arrays in the Fortran routines was then converted back to Python arrays with statements such as: nodedisp = npc.as_array(nodedisp).  … Continue reading →

Posted in Excel, Finite Element Analysis, Fortran, Link to dll, Link to Python, Newton, NumPy and SciPy, VBA | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments