Blog Posts

Finite element analysis (FEA) solvers such as Abaqus are powerful tools for predicting the behavior of structures under load, but it’s important to remember that the assumptions of linearity underlying FEA can break down under certain conditions. When that happens, the results of the analysis may not accurately represent the real-world behavior of the structure.

It is likely that most simulation engineers have at least heard of the terms true-stress and true-strain before. But what do these terms mean, how do we calculate them and why are they important? This post aims to address all three of these questions. Engineering-Stress and Strain Before we delve into true-stress and strain, it

All engineering materials like metals, plastics, glass, and concrete have limited lifetime. Various factors like fatigue, corrosion, erosion, stress corrosion cracking or foreign object damage effect the strength, stability, and chemical composition of the material leading to its failure. This post is aimed at summarizing some of the more common failure theories and providing guidance

Welcome to the final post in our three part series featuring all of the Brain Teasers that were posted weekly on the Fidelis LinkedIn page between 2020 and 2022! nn This week’s collection of Brain Teasers focuses on analysis-related questions, further sorted by subject. The answers to these questions, as well as the explanations, are

Welcome to the second post in our three-part series featuring all our Brain Teasers that we posted weekly on our LinkedIn for two years! This week’s collection of Brain Teasers focuses on mechanics-related questions, further sorted by subject. The answers to these questions as well as the explanations are shown after all the questions. These

The famous fourth dimension, ‘time’, plays a crucial role in determining the behavior of almost all engineering and physical systems. Given this, it is important that our FEA simulation methodologies account for time accordingly. This post is aimed at explaining the concept of time integration in FEA and the difference in how it is accounted

Welcome to the first post in our three part series featuring all of the Brain Teasers that were posted weekly on the Fidelis LinkedIn page between 2020 and 2022! This week’s collection of Brain Teasers focuses on material-related questions, further sorted by subject. The answers to these questions, as well as the explanations, are shown

Most mechanical engineers in their studies will learn Mohr’s Circle. It’s an important concept that, unfortunately, isn’t appreciated much outside the university curriculum. But what is it and can we apply it to our understanding of FEA results? Read further to find out! A Quick Background Mohr’s circle is named after its creator, Christian Otto

Many of us have utilized the power of FEA solutions, such as Abaqus, to analyze all manner of products. But how much do we really know about exactly how it works? In this article, we will learn how to discretize a simple 1D domain into linear and quadratic elements and derive shape functions by approximating

We all know that output files generated by most FEA solvers can be huge. In some cases, this can be problematic, especially if you’re working with limited hard drive space. There’s nothing more frustrating than running an analysis for many hours, only to have it stop before it finishes because you ran out of space!