Object-Oriented Finite Element Programming And Visualization Research

The finite element method (FEM) is the production combined among the engineering science, calculation method and technique of computer. Because of the elasticity in processing the boundary problem of complex area,FEM already become an effective numerical analysis method in engineering. The visualization technique plays a very important role in the finite element analysis. Not only does it reveal to engineers and technicians the significant characteristics of the complicated computing results by visual tools, but also improves and develops efficient computing methods and new strategy based on steering computing.Now researches about the introduction of object-oriented programming into development of finite element analysis software are receiving increasing attention. This paper first introduces the basic concepts of FEM and object oriented programming (OOP) to FEM. By mean of data encapsulation in OOP, many classes in FEA were constructed. These are the FEA class, the global structure class, the math domain class, the node class, the element class, the load class, the material class, the constraint class, the matrix class, the vector class and so on. Then, the paper discussed the 2D-graphics scientific visualization based on MFC and 3D-graphics scientific visualization based on OpenGL in FEA. Also it created some classes about OpenGL, thus made it more convenient to use OpenGL under MFC programming environment. These classes are the point class, the 3D-vector class, the 3D-matrix class, the view class, the light class and so on. At last, three examples about FEA were presented.The findings of this paper reflect that the object-oriented method is an effective means used in developing finite element analysis software, Compared with traditional method it possesses the advantages of being more structured, easy to be compiled, maintained and extended and the program code can be much more reused. The OOP method not only improve the functions of finite element software but also realize the congruity between the computing model and physical model in the real world, and promote the integrity technique of CAD/CAE.