Object-Oriented Approach To Finite Element Programming

Now researches about the introduction of object-oriented programming into developments of finite element analysis software are receiving increasing attention abroad, but in domestic only a little work has been done in this field until now. Through comprehensively and systematically introducing OOP in every aspect of FEA programming, this thesis proposed a new approach for developing FEA software. The thesis at first time put forward the thought of building FEA application architecture that centered upon the data structure in FEA. By mean of data package in OOP, four basic data classes in FEA were constructed. These are the nodal class TNode, the element data class TElement, the load class TLoad and the material data class TMatLab. A FEA application architecture, the abstract class TFemBase, was designed based on these classes, which fulfilled abstraction of generality in various FEA. The emphasis in elements' design was placed on the abstraction for procedures of elements and constitutive laws. The element abstract class TEleBase and the material abstract class TMatBase were proposed, which provided a unique interface for various elemental and constitutive procedures respectively. These two classed explained the general rules using OOP for element and constitution programming. Some examples were given to illustrate how to use the classes mentioned above for developing codes for specific element types, constitution laws and FEA software. Mechanism of inheritance and virtual function in OOP provided FEA application architecture fine expandability. It enabled FEA applications a natural expanding style of strengthening capabilities without code modification, and resolved the difficulty long existed in FEA software developments, thus provided a totally new approach for developing FEA software.