The objective of this tutorial book is to expose the reader to the basic FEA capabilities in CATIA V5. The chapters are designed to be independent of each other allowing the user to pick specific topics without the need to go through the previous chapters. However, the best strategy to learn is to sequentially cover the chapters.

In this workbook, the parts created in CATIA are simple enough that can be modeled with minimal knowledge of this powerful software. The reason behind the simplicity is not to burden the reader with the CAD aspects of the package. However, it is assumed that the user is familiar with CATIA V5 interface and basic utilities such as pan, zoom, and rotation.

The tutorials are based on release 17; however, other releases can also be used with minor changes. Typically, the differences are not even noticed by a beginner. The workbook was developed using CATIA in a windows XP environment. Nevertheless, it can be used for NT and UNIX platforms without any changes.

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Analysis of a Bent Rod with Solid Elements
3. Axially Loaded Block with Stress Concentration
4. Stress Analysis of a Rotating Disk
5. Deformation of an I-beam under Self-weight
6. C-clamp Deformed with Enforced Displacement
7. FEA Modeling of the Bent Rod with Beam Elements
8. Beam Elements under Enforced Displacement
9. Bending of a Notched Specimen with Smooth Virtual Part
10. Analyzing a Loaded Bracket with Shell Elements, Surface Extraction Approach
11. Modeling Mismatch in Shell Thickness and Surface Mesh
12. Analysis of Thin Walled Pressure Vessel using Shell Elements
13. Using the "Surface Mesher" to Simplify Geometry
14. FE Model of a Bearing-Shaft Assembly using Analysis Connection
15. Shrink Fit Analysis
16. Analysis of a Tensile Specimen as an Assembly
17. Analysis of a Fastened Assembly
18. Thermal Stresses in a Bi-metallic Strip
19. Hybrid Mesh Analysis
20. Spring Elements
21. Adaptive Refinement
22. Free Vibration of a Simply Supported Beam
23. Buckling Analysis
24. A Simple Spot Weld Analysis
25. Defining Restraints or Loads on Patches
26. Limited Hexahedral element Capabilities
27. Frequency Response of a Simply Supported Beam
Appendix: Miscellaneous Comments