EXPERIENCES OF FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS COURSE ASSESSMENT

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to discuss the commonassessment experiences of a sample introductory course onfinite element analysis (FEA) taught at two different local 4-year undergraduate engineering colleges. The assessment isbased on the common course (or student) learningexperiences and on the common course topics taught atthese schools. Assessment tools such as class work, homework, quizzes, tests, and final project, as well as final examhave been used to assess the performance of the students.Both math and CAE tools have been used for this course.Math tools involve using matrix algebra for most part tosolve the equations obtained by either direct stiffness methodor by energy methods. CAE tools involve solid modelingcomponents and solving using UG and/or I-DEAS, and/orANSYS software. Validation of the CAE results by handcalculations is an important aspect of this course.Index Terms ⎯ CAE, Finite element modeling and analysis