Topic outline

  • After the course: (1) Student knows the ‘divide-and-rule’ engineering paradigm for structure modelling, (2) is able to model structures as collections of solid, plate, beam and rigid parts, (3) knows the principles and concepts of FEM, (4) is able to derive element contributions of solid, plate, beam and of rigid elements, and (5) analyze simple structures and machine parts by hand calculation and the FEM software of the course.


    • COURSE SOFTWARE

      Lectures of the online course use Zoom or/and Teams. Be prepared to use the platforms:

      https://www.aalto.fi/en/services/zoom-quick-guide

      https://www.aalto.fi/en/services/microsoft-teams

      Assignments of the course are published and returned through MyCourses. Be prepared to use an equation editor and a tool for pdf-conversion:

      https://www.dessci.com/en/  

      https://download.aalto.fi/index-en.html

      FEM solver of the course requires Mathematica software to work. Download Mathematica in good time (it may take a few days to get the license)

      https://download.aalto.fi/index-en.html

      LECTURES

      Lectures on Mon (10:15-11:30) and Tue (14:15-15:30) are based on the lecture notes available in the homepage on Fri of the previous week (at the latest). Lecture assignments of weeks 45-49 are published in the homepage at the end of the lectures on Mon and Tue.

      Exercise session on Thu is used for calculations examples by hand and FE-code of the course. The weekly course material contains 10 problems with their hand and FE-code solutions to be discussed on Thu.

      Calculation hours 10:15-12:00 on Fri is an informal meeting for instructions and questions about the assignments.

      EXERCISE MATERIAL

      The weekly exercise material consists of 10 exercise problems, 2 lecture assignments, 3 home assignments. Solutions to the modelling assignment, home assignments, and lecture assignments are graded so that the maximal points correspond to the fifth correctly solved exam problem in the final grading of the course. Participation in the final exam is possible only if the points from the graded assignments exceed half of the maximal points.

      Exercise problem are published in the home page on Friday of the previous week. Exercise problems contain answers and full solutions.

      Lecture assignments are published in the homepage after the lectures and should be returned through the homepage: Assignment 1 is published on Mon 11:45 and should be returned before Mon 13:00. Assignment 2 is published on Tue 15:45 and should be returned before Tue 17:00.

      Home assignments are published in the homepage on Friday of the previous week and should be returned through the homepage before Sun 23:55 of the next week. Some of the problems are structured and contain templates to be completed, some are non-structured to be solved from scratch.

      Assignments are published in doc and pdf versions. With the doc version, you can use MathType equation editor to fill the missing parts of a structured assignment or write the full solution to a non-structured assignment. Also handwriting is possible.  However, the returned solution should be of good quality and pdf in type.

      FINAL EXAM

      Remote exam at the end of the course consist of four (4) problems published in the homepage at the scheduled exam time. The exam problems are given as separate assignments to be returned in the same manner as the home assignments of the course. Returning a solution through the home page is possible before the deadline (4h). There

      (1) You may use the material of the homepage,

      (2) You may use a symbolic calculator,

      (3) You are supposed to solve the problems by yourself.

      Bonus points are worth of one correctly solved exam problem. Solutions to the modelling assignment, home assignments, and lecture assignments are graded so that the maximal points correspond to the fifth correctly solved exam problem in the final grading of the course.