Learning Outcomes:
At the completion of the module, the students should be able to:
1. Develop heat transfer and solid mechanics simulations using finite element software Abaqus;
2. Develop heat transfer and fluid dynamics simulations using finite volume software ANSYS and OpenFOAM;
3. Describe the underlying mathematical models (governing equations, boundary conditions, material models, ...) and discuss their limitations;
4. Understand how to verify and validate numerical results, and distinguish between verification and validation;
5. Explain the sources of error in finite element and finite volume simulations;
6. Setup and run finite element and finite volume analyses of real-life engineering problems, and justify the steps involved;
7. Clearly and concisely present the simulations in report form, including details of the modelling assumptions and setup, with insightful presentation of results.
Indicative Module Content:
- Hands-on application of the finite element and finite volume methods via the software Abaqus, Ansys Fluent and OpenFOAM;
- Understanding simulation errors: numerical errors (discretisation, iteration, rounding) and modelling errors (assumptions about the solution domain, initial/boundary conditions, and material models);
- Quantifying discretisation (mesh) errors via Richardson's extrapolation and the grid convergence index, and understanding the difference between accuracy and order of accuracy;
- Linking application of the finite element and finite volume methods with the underlying continuum mechanics and numerical methods theory;
- Running heat transfer, stress analysis (linear and nonlinear) and fluid flow (laminar and turbulent) analyses;
- Introduction to the Unix/Linux terminal (required for OpenFOAM);
- Introduction to parallelisation and running Abaqus/Ansys/OpenFOAM models on distributed memory supercomputers (UCD Sonic and ICHEC Kay systems).