The student will learn the background needed to analyse engineering problems in structural mechanics by means of simulations based on the Finite Element Method (FEM). The student achieves this background with the development of their own programming codes with Matlab. The starting level of knowledge for Matlab (or other programming language) to attend the subject is basic level.
In this context, several numerical techniques will be described, which allows the simulation of the behavior of trusses, beams, plates, shells among others, and also of more complex structures built by combination of the affore mentioned element types. Students will learns to solve the following mechanical problems: stress analysis of a plate with a hole, mode analysis of beam structures and wave propagation on membranes.
These knowledge will allow the student to correctly identify the parameters of a structural problem, to establish simplifications (if possible), to implement a computational solution procedure and to perform a critical analysis of the results.