1 Principles of the finite element method. - 1. 1. Principle equations of mathematical physics. - 1. 2. The idea of a well posed problem. - 1. 3. Integral formulation. - 1. 4. Approximation of the unknown functions. - 1. 5. Minimization of the functional with the aid of approximation functions. - 1. 6. The finite element mesh and the approximation functions. - 2 From one dimension. to three. - 2. 1. Elementary principles of the finite element method. - 2. 2. Example 1: one dimension. - 2. 3. Example 2: two dimensions. - 2. 4. Example 3: three dimensions. - 2. 5. Example 4: problems in the time domain. - 3 Finite elements and approximation functions. - 3. 1. Introduction. - 3. 2. One-dimensional elements. - 3. 3. Two-dimensional elements. - 3. 4. Three-dimensional elements. - 3. 5. Conclusion. - 4 Numerical methods. - 4. 1. Methods for solving systems of linear equations. - 4. 2. Non-linear systems: the Newton-Raphson method. - 4. 3. Numerical methods for calculating definite integrals. - 4. 4. Differential equations with initial conditions. - 4. 5. Conclusion. - 5 General theory of second order isoparametric elements. - 5. 1. Introduction. - 5. 2. Setting up the equations. - 5. 3. Application of the Newton-Raphson method. - 5. 4. Construction of the matrix H and the vectors F and R. - 5. 5. The finite elements. - 5. 6. Application. - 6 General architecture of CAD systems based on the finite element method. - 6. 1. General structure. - 6. 2. The data entry module. - 6. 3. The solver. - 6. 4. Postprocessors. - 6. 5. Architecture of finite element software. - 6. 6. Communication between programs. - 6. 7. Interdisciplinary software. - 6. 8. Conclusion. - 7 Geometry mesh generation and physical properties. - 7. 1. Description of the geometry. - 7. 2. Discretization of the domain. - 7. 3. Description of physical characteristics. - 7. 4. Conclusion. - 8 Postprocessing. - 8. 1. Objectives of postprocessing. - 8. 2. Extraction of information. - 8. 3. Visualization of the information. - 8. 4. Conclusion. - 9 Applications. - 9. 1. The FLUX2D package. - 9. 2. FLUX3D. - 9. 3. Microcomputer software. - 9. 4. The super programs. - Conclusion. Language: English