Development of an Interactive Finite Element Analysis Program Within MS Windows 95 Environment

Abstract

The objective of this project was to develop a highly interactive, graphically oriented, special purpose Finite Element Analysis program, that utilizes the MS-Windows 95 environment as the Graphical User Interface (GUI). The system has been developed for personal computers; Visual Basic 5.0 has been selected as the programming language for its versatility and the advantages of its toolbox to develop applications that follows the MS-Windows standards. The program performs plane stress analysis, using four nodes isoparametric elements (Q4), considering static loads, linear elastic material behavior and small displacements. It is specifically oriented to non-prismatic beam type models (defined by two vertical boundaries at the most left and the most right limits). The designed program minimizes the user's learning process and allows the sharing of numerical and graphical data with other MS-Windows applications.