FEA (Finite Element Analysis)

I would contact the FEA firms directly or scan their sites closely for university versions of their programs. Most FEA companies produce a size limited version of their software for a nominal fee. They reason, correctly, that the software learned in college will be used professionally when the students graduate.

It may be worth looking on the website http://www.feainformation.com/ in spite of the excess baggage. Several of the programs can handle dynamic effects, and this can include thermal, mechanical and electrical interactions. My (limited) experience is of Ansys software.

Do not not about the capabilites of Autodesk and finite element analysis. Our finite element class used SAP 2000. It is a very good program that is also used by structural firms.

cosmosworks is an FEA tool within Solidworks 3D modeler. We used that at Wentworth Institute of technology. Good program and it comes with a student package version. Wenworth is a small school and if we can afford it, it must be reasonably priced. Either way, look for student versions of whatever program you want to use if you want a better price

I don't have that much skill in this business, but I can tell you
the following.

(1) Per Dr. Abed Khaskia, President, Mallett Technology (the
distributor and engineering support organization for ANSYS/Multiphysics),
it is possible to get a node-locked license for $5k. This license will
solve all problems (e. g., CFD Flotran), but with a limit of 8000 nodes
in the model. More expensive licenses are available having higher node
limits, up to "no limit" for $100k.

(2) I have a license of Autodesk Inventor Professional and I sustain the
annual maintenance subscription for it (which just today cost me
$1495.00 to renew). This license allows unlimited node models to
be submitted, but only to a PORTION of the ANSYS solver that is
built into Inventor (specifically quasi-static solids problems). I
apologize that I am not yet deeply enough "into" Inventor to know,
e. g., whether thermal expansion is also included. A couple of years
back I had the pleasure of a slew of courses under Abed Khaskia
and his associates, where in particular I got the (not guaranteed)
impression that "thermal expansion" is a built-in fact of solids, which
leads me to suspect that Inventor might allow temperature gradients.

(3) You probably have heard of this before, but I am now discovering
(by exploratory surgical-type learning-by-diddling) that Inventor has
a wealth of pre-formed mechanisms which have actual physical properties.
Example from two days ago: Helical coil spring, complete with axial
k-stiffness factor (and beautifully drawn, to my tastes).

Hopefully, you have been helped by this perspective of someone who needed
to find a learning package to keep alive knowledge which I will use as the basis
for my career when I am first eligible for CSRS retirement in approximately 3 years.

Raymond A. Byrnes, Jr.
B.S.E.E., M.S., Ph.D.
rabyrnesjr@gmail.com

Hi Raymond: I am Mechanical Engineer and teacher of Mechanism in the UBA (Universidad de Buenos Aires) and in UNLZ (Universidad de Lomas de Zamora). In the last there is a license of Inventor that I can use. By now, I am using a Student Edition of Abaqus (limited to 1000 nodes), which is one of the most powerfull FEA software.

I didn´t understand a part of your messagge with regards to "CSRS retirement".What mean that? Good news or bad...?

Regards.

Gabriel

gabriel.dasso@gmail.com

Hi ! how r u? i'm suggesting u one software named ANSYS, which is very good in meshing also on FEA . It is chip compare to other because our collage has for STUDENTS , so u can imagine it is chip also & very good in ANALYSIS.