The finite element method is being used increasingly to solve complex mathematical relationships in all areas of engineering. It is particularly useful in aiding design engineers to select appropriate and safe designs for structures, and to enable prediction of what effects changes of use or structural modifications have on the integrity and stress regime of individual components. This book provides an introduction to PAFEC, one of the most widely available and extensively used software packages, and presents a logical and careful guide on how to construct data sets, solve specific problems and use PAFEC most effectively, whilst later chapters describe more complex analysis and relationships. This is a book for professionals, consultants and postgraduate students in civil, geotechnical and mechanical engineering who have access to computer systems supporting the PAFEC software package.

The aim of this book is to provide professional engineers and students of engineering with a sound working knowledge of the finite element method for engineering analysis and engineering design. This readable text will serve as a guide both to the method, and to its implementation in PAFEC (Program for Automatic Finite Element Calculations) software.