Practical Finite Element Analysis
for Mechanical Engineers

Dominique’s “Practical Finite Element Analysis for Mechanical Engineers” provides a unique educational bridge between college technical theory and vendor specific software training. The book can be read cover-to-cover by the FEA beginner or used as a reference by even the most experienced analysts. The unique tables and checklists are ideal for quick reference. I would highly recommend using the strategies laid out to optimize the accuracy and efficiency of your analysis as tailored to your unique goals. Although many of the examples are from the aerospace industry, anyone in the field of simulation can easily apply the lessons learned regardless of their application. I would recommend keeping the hardcopy on the top of your desk and/or the electronic copy on your desktop at all times!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Practical Finite Element Analysis for Mechanical Engineers by Dominique Madier. The book contains over 600 pages of beautifully laid out text and illustrations which guide the engineer through a very broad range of FEA topics. It really is a pleasure just to dip anywhere into this book, with it's clean and attractive layout. 

 

The reader is guided through basic principles of FEA technology including element types, and the background to shape functions and element stiffness matrices. Loads, Boundary Conditions , Meshing and Post processing follow in a logical fashion. All of these topics include a wealth of practical hints and tips, which will be useful to both the experienced and the newcomer. Additional sections cover 'special' elements including rigids and flexible connections and springs and methods. The important contact types are explained, together with sub modelling methods.

 

A summary of Linear Static Analysis is given, and then extended to Nonlinear Static Analysis. Linear and Nonlinear Buckling are described, together with an introduction to Normal Modes Analysis. The sections on estimating and tuning hardware performance, validation/correlation, and analysis reporting are practical and very helpful. The final section is a roundup of good modeling practices, filled with examples.

 

I have no hesitation in strongly recommending this book to anyone, from beginner to expert, who is interested in FEA. I will certainly be encouraging students on my FETraining e-learning and live courses to obtain a copy. I thank Dominique for his effort and dedication in producing such a useful contribution for the FEA community.

While visiting clients and meeting with fellow engineers I’m often asked, “What’s the best way to get started in FEA?”. Traditional textbooks taught at the university level are filled with great detail; however, they tend to focus primarily on the mathematical modeling occurring in the background with little to no practical application outside academia. The expectation is that you will learn practical application within industry after university. Dominique Madier has delivered a book that combines the appropriate amount of theory and application to accelerate the learning curve for a novice or seasoned engineer. Next time a fellow engineer or client asks me how to get started, I’ll be able to direct them to this book.

I cannot praise "Practical Finite Element Analysis for Mechanical Engineers" highly enough. After many failed attempts, I’ve finally found a text which captures the balance of theory and good practice required to be a great FE engineer. The book aligns perfectly with my Finite Element Applications course which I’ve been teaching to budding mechanical and aerospace engineers for years. I’m incredibly impressed with the way the book integrates and addresses the reader as an engineer. Unlike other texts in the field, the book really tackles the complexities of the whole FE problem solving process, including all the common pitfalls that novice and intermediate users fall into. It is a treatise on thinking like an FE analyst as much as it is a theory reference. Needless to say, I’ll be recommending this book to all my students. It is a fantastic package which includes a wealth of downloadable examples. For the price, every developing and practising FE engineer should own a copy.

A monumental achievement, this textbook is poised to become a reference for anyone in the field of Finite Element Analysis. The book is thorough covering both the mathematics behind the physics problem, as well as the practical consideration relative to solving real life engineering problems. A must-read for Mechanical Engineering students and practitioners alike!

Students around the world can now take a deep breath of solace and calm knowing that there is a new textbook that gives them exactly what they want – the best practical methods and guidelines for the development and validation of finite element models, the history on how they were developed, and the theory behind why they’re the best. And to top it all off, it was written by an Aerospace Subject Matter Expert (SME) that has seen these topics applied to real Aerospace hardware. Thank you, Dominique.

This is an amazing textbook. Having worked in the education space with universities over the last 28 years, a book like this is what has been sorely missing for Professors and students. It is a breath of fresh air knowing that they now have this incredible resource.

What I have found unique to this book, is it focus on, solid modelling techniques as opposed to the "simple command teaching" of most books, and its focus on the theory of FEM. I highly recommend this book to anyone involved with FEA.

It is an excellent book, by far one of the best on this topic. Very well structured, with a clear and detailed text, impressive illustrations and excellent examples. Great job.

I want to recommend this book to anyone who uses finite element analysis (beginners or advanced) because you will find many useful answers and practical examples that I did not found, until now, in other similar books. It is very well structured both theory and examples.

If you’re an aerospace engineer (or from any other industry, for that matter) working in FEA then you MUST read this book. Over 600 beautifully-crafted pages, jammed with a huge amount of information on all sorts of FEA-related topics, from the basics, through model build, analysis and verification, plus loads more. This is definitely the most impressive FEA book I have ever seen (and I’ve seen a lot). Whether you’re a newbie getting to grips with the techniques or a time-served analyst, looking for the specifics on a wide range of topics, you should be looking at this. I’ve never seen such a great balance between theory and practice before. Well done to the author - there’s some real hard work in this, and it really shows!

The book is very easy to read and detailed. I have never seen a book with similar content. Really, It is worth reading it. It takes a lot of time and effort to write a book that clearly explains it. I'm used to taking notes of the daily problems I face in my job, so I can appreciate your work. Very good job!

This first edition has been a wonderful and exciting news within the aerostructures analysis community. I got my copy of the book on October 6th, 2020 and since then I keep finding out that most of the personal notes, tips and tricks I have gathered and learned during my last 20 years of structures analysis are perfectly presented, and much more, in this book. Dominique Madier deserves the merit of proposing to the structures analysis community not only an original, first-time published information but a must-know practical knowledge.

I'm happy and delighted that experts like Dominique are sharing their deep understanding of structures analysis with next generations of engineers. I believe it is important to remember through this book that structures analysis physics and fundamentals are pretty well established, FEM as a numerical modeling approach for complex situations can evolve as long as it is supported with validation and within accepted error limits. It is therefore fundamental to remind in the era of "Apps" and color plots, about engineer's duty to push the limits of judgment rather than relying on FEM as a black box magic tool. This book is about sharing validated methods in an accurate and practical way with the community of engineers and contributing from the technical side to a high standard of safety and pushing the competitive limits in the air vehicle.

This is like the FEM bible that all FEA analysts need. Good job in putting all that practical knowledge together. I can’t wait to increase my FEM knowledge and skills with this.

I have spent some time to read the book. The book contains both theoretical and practical aspects of FEA. I think every FEA Engineers need to go through it to refresh him/her self or to learn from the basics.
It includes all necessary information’s you need to know while doing a FEA analysis from building up your model to postprocessing and understanding analysis results. It also includes the verification checks to make sure that your model is correctly builded up. It is highly recommended to all FEA Engineers.

I bought the Practical Finite Element Analysis for Mechanical Engineers book by Dominique Madier. I thoroughly had deep pleasure reading it chapter by chapter. The book is well organized and contains practical FEA methodologies and strategies that any engineer needs to know in his career as FEA engineer. The book summarizes the most important knowledge that highly specialists know in this field. I am deeply delighted and grateful to the Author for sharing his knowledge within our engineering community. For those reasons, I recommend this book to any engineer or specialist in the field of finite element analysis.

As an aerospace engineering student, I am very interested in the domain of mechanical structure. It is why I want to know more and go into the details of FEA. But it's not that easy to find a book that covers theory and practice exhaustively.
When Dominique started talking about his book project, he intrigued me a lot and I started following him. I knew his book would become a reference for all FEA engineers because it is the result of decades of experience.
When I received my copy, I had confirmation. Extremely accurate, with many illustrations, a little bit of theory and a lot of practical examples, It provides what an FEA engineer needs to be able to be autonomous in structural analysis.
If you are an aspiring engineer you can't miss it, I highly recommend it.

In my search for a good applied FEA book over the years, I found Mac Donald’s book. A very good one that I recommend, but not as complete as this new publication by experienced FEA engineer Dominique Madier: “Practical Finite Element Analysis for Mechanical Engineers“. This book totally fills the missing link between theory books and practical FEA. Madier explains it himself in his webinar: “How to Learn FEA”. I could not agree more with him…

I am a Master's Student and my thesis involves building a Finite Element Model of a touch probe. FEA is really a vast topic and understanding key elements of it is very crucial in thoroughly and accurately designing and analyzing any physical problem. Using FEA software without any prior basic understanding of physics, elements used in FEA, Material Models, Contacts, and other key concepts can bring about inaccurate results. This book covers all the practical aspects of FEA along with real-life examples. The flow of this book is really well structured and easy to navigate. Mastering FEA is not an easy task but this book will unquestionably bring you one step closer. Thank you Dominique Madier for this amazing book.

Great book. Clean and tidy compilation of methods, procedures and key FEA aspects viewed from an industry perspective. A must have for any FEA/Stress engineer. This is going to be the first reference in my lectures on practical FEA. Great job Dominique!

When it comes to Finite Element Analysis, we still have a big lack of bibliographies able to bring real aspects of the daily activities of an Engineering department. Dominique’s initiative on his FEA book is amazing, because he is bringing his huge experience in solving engineering problems in the Industry into the book, not just in a theorical aspect, but practical approach in how to use Finite Element Method to deal with structural challenges during product development. The book is filling out the lack we have, dealing with good practices, real examples and the theory of the method. For sure, this book is increasing the opportunity for new FEA users learn the method in the right direction, and to FEA experts improve their approach.

I am grateful to have been chosen as one of the reviewers of the book "Practical Finite Element Analysis for Mechanical Engineers".

Dominique and I have been working together on the C-Series/A220 development program for several years. During this period, it was a pleasure to exchange with him regarding how to better handle finite element models. When I reviewed his book, several years after, I figured out that what Dominique wrote is what he usually do for his finite element tasks.

Dominique's book presents the best practices as well as the methodologies and the strategies for FEA engineers, to help them to do finite element analysis for any type of structure.

I strongly recommend this book without any hesitation for any engineers or specialists in the field who are interested to use finite element analysis in the frame of their work or their teaching.

It has been just more than a year since I took a course on 'Intro to FEA' in my grad school. As a fresher in this domain, I find Dominique's book increasingly helpful to learn the nuances needed for getting skilled as an FEA engineer. This book not only explains the essential theory needed to get started as an FEA engineer but also does wonders in explaining how to set up a simulation from scratch. It covers everything from the equilibrium basic equation to contact modeling. I believe it is going to be a very useful tool for students to learn and maintain a certain level of expertise needed in the FEA industry to become an excellent FEA analyst. Thank you for putting this together.

I bought the e-book recently and I am finding it really useful for my day to day FEA activities at work. The concepts are explained and written in a very simplified language so that it caters to either a beginner or an experienced FEA user. The book is very organized and structured in its contents and I highly recommend to get this book to all FEA enthusiasts. I would also like to thank Dominique for his efforts for this amazing book.

I just bought this book, and I can say in a sentence “it is the best”. You can learn a lot of practical FEM problems. For me, it answers most of the questions in my mind. There are lots of colourful pictures which makes it more enjoyable to read. The structure is not like submerging yourself into theories and equations.

I primarily ordered the book to systematize the knowledge and already spent a few days on reading it. I can only recommend it, mainly for its completeness. These 600+ pages cover most of the topics related to FEA and perfectly fills the gap between the academia theoretical stuff and the practical side of the FEA. If you are fresh in the field the book will bring you up to speed and it is something I wish I had when I started my adventure with mechanical simulations. Even after well over a decade in the FEA I can still learn a lot and can find something in every section that stops me for a while to rethink.

I had the pleasure to meet Dominique on the C-Series/A220 development program in 2010. I discovered a gentleman with profound FEA knowledge and a dedicated professional applying rigorous methodology to his work. I was honored to be asked to participate as a reviewer for his book, which will become a reference in both industry and academia. His book is well structured and provides insight in the FE theory and practical, technical approach to real world problems. I am very enthusiastic for his project and I am sure the reader will keep this book in the short list of references to be kept close at hand.

This is an excellent book written for various engineers who uses FEA and would like an insight into practical use of finite element analysis. I have read many FEM books that mainly focuses on theory and gives little information about practical FEA. This book bridges the gap between theory, concept, and practical approach. Not too heavy on the theory and has a strong practical approach to problem solving and covers a huge range of engineering concept. It includes an overview to linear static analysis, non-linear static analysis, linear buckling, non-linear buckling, and modal analysis with practical examples. Whether you just started your career as an FEA analyst, or advance, I strongly recommend deepening your practical FEA by reading this book.

‘Practical Finite Element Analysis for Mechanical Engineers’ has been one of my best purchases of 2020. Dominique has done a wonderful job writing this book. The 25 chapters of this book serve as an effective tool to apply FEM/FEA techniques to be a proficient FE analyst. The contents of this book is highly recommended for aspiring FEA engineers and professionals. With more than 10+ years in the structures/FEA world, I can definitely say that this book is now a guide sitting handy by my desk. The author’s valuable practical knowledge and experience concentrated into 600+ pages is well-structured and with excellent illustration.

"Practical Finite Element Analysis for Mechanical Engineers" book by Dominique Madier is one of the best book which I will recommend to all the FEA Analyst whom wants to move from a beginning level to an advance level which mostly the Industries need.