Finite Elements in Civil Engineering and Geosciences#
This is an open interactive book on Finite Elements with applications in Civil Engineering and Geosciences. The book has specifically been designed having in mind a target audience of students at a Master level, particularly for the Master in Civil Engineering in the Civil Engineering and Geosciences faculty at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft).
Scope#
This online book offers an introduction to computational modelling using the Finite Element (FE) method, a numerical method that is widely used to solve Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). The FE method provides a general framework for the solution of PDEs based on the definition of discrete functions that approximate the solution. One of the main advantages of FE method, and probably one of the reasons of its wide adoption, is that it provides a generic framework that can be used to solve many type of PDEs, with a strong mathematical foundation behind it.
In this book we will try to convey this flexibility by introducing the FE method for simple problems and extending the applicability to a wide variety of PDEs appearing in Civil Engineering and Geosciences applications.
Acknowledgements#
This book is building on a tradition of computational mechanics education and research at the faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at TU Delft. Lecture notes by Garth Wells (Introduction to the Finite Element Method) and by René de Borst and Bert Sluys (Computational Methods in Non-linear Solid Mechanics) have been used as source of inspiration for parts of the book.
Development of the book is supported with two Education Innovation grants from the Education Management Team of the faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences in 2023 and 2024.