Session 10: ‘Spider’ Elements in FEA, what are they?

Spider elements play a big role in traditional FE Analysis

Video : 60 minutes presentation and curated Q and A

Every FE Analyst develops a toolbox of favorite techniques

The Rigid and Flexible ‘spider’ elements are an essential part of mine

Spider element is an ‘unofficial’ term I use because …

• The elements allow a ‘spider’ like connection between nodes in a structure
• The ‘body’ of the spider is always a single node
• The ‘feet’ can be any number of nodes

We don’t have a limitation of 8 legs!

There are two forms of this element

• Infinitely Rigid
• Infinitely Flexible

In this webinar, I’m going to give plenty of example of usage of each type – some quite novel!

Over 25 questions at the end showed the level of interest!

Check out the other webinars:

Session 1: St Venant’s principle

Session 2: FEA Sanity checks

Session 3: Free Body Diagrams

Session 4: Mohr’s Circle

Session 5: Cheating in nonlinear buckling!

Session 6: High Cycle or Low Cycle Fatigue analysis – what’s in a number?

Session 7: Topology Optimization and Generative Design – buzzwords or reality?

Session 8: The importance of Normal Modes in Dynamic Response Analysis

Session 9: Singularities and stress concentrations

Session 11: Units in FEA – some horror stories!

Session 12: Can Designers really take advantage of FEA?

Session 13: FEA models under or over constrained?