FINITE ELEMENT ELASTO-PLASTIC ANALYSIS USING OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

Abstract

FEM programs are modular in nature. Traditional procedural languages such as FORTRAN and BASIC do not have language constructs to exploit this modularity. It had organizational problems as programs grew larger. Writing clear, reliable and easy-to-maintain software remain a challenge with these procedural languages.Object-Oriented Programming (00P) brings a new approach to this challenge. 00P characteristics such as encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism and modularity support three desirable features of modularity, reusability and ease of maintenance in the development of complicated engineering 'system. Extending or modifying object-oriented programs is very straightforward. In this dissertation, an object-oriented extension for MASTER PLAST (available in FORTRAN) is done using C++ as an 00P language. It carries out elasto-plastic analysis for 2-D plane stress, plane strain and axisymmetric problems. The conclusion drawn at the end of this study is that, OOP can be used to significantly improve finite element analysis programs. Implementation of object-oriented programs requires less time and memory. '