Internal software formulation

andres_159

Good

I would like to know if there is a manual that contains the mathematical and physical formulas, in addition to the theories that Mecway uses for the analysis of structures, since I have searched the reference manual and I cannot find much information about it.

Thanks.

MikeMcMullen

Probably not, as Mecway is not open source (Victor may weigh in), though I believe it developed from what was at the time a simpler earlier project, Lisa, but has been expanded in capability since then, especially by easy linkage and function as a pre and post processor for Calculix.
https://en.everybodywiki.com/Mecway
D. Hondt has a book on FEA analysis created a few years after he created Calculix which appears to be a deliberate documention of it's mathematical basis. It is pretty dense, however, and assumes you are up to speed on FEM and the advanced math involved. Also the notation is slightly different than I learned in the early 1970's (as well as having forgotten a great deal due to lack of use).

Since Calculix is open source you can look in the code.
Much, or most, of the calculation methods of either program is contained in libraries of code for the mathematical methods used. These libraries were (BLAS for example) created a long time ago, and are constantly being updated by various groups.

Victor

As MikeMcMullen said, it's not well documented, sorry. I've tried to include references in the manual for special features like cyclic symmetry, but most of it is very standard.

The 2D and 3D solid elements and the linear static solver are the same as described in many textbooks, such as:

"The Finite Element Method: A Practical Course" by Liu and Quek.

and

"Finite Element Procedures" by Bathe section 5.3 Formulation of Continuum Elements .

I found Liu and Quek to be quite clear and easy to follow, while Bathe is more academic and goes beyond what's in Mecway in a lot of places.

andres_159

Thanks!