KAP’s Corner: Imaginary Parts

In the world of FEA, sometimes the answer has to be “Right” – and sometimes it has to be “Right Now”.
This month’s topic is about getting answers Right Now. Every example I’m going to cover here is a cheat of some kind. Purists, Beware! In each of these examples, the key to the method is to invent imaginary parts on which to apply loads or restraints, or imaginary material properties, or both. These materials will sometimes allow us to avoid computing real-world Gap/Contacts, or will turn a marginally unstable problem into a stable one, or will allow us to use a force-based load where a deflection-based boundary condition would be too confined. [Click the image to get the article.]