Talking Shop with Tony Abbey

Episode 3 - Free Body Diagrams

NAFEMS is talking shop with Tony Abbey on a range of topics relevant to, and suggested by, the engineering analysis community.

We kicked off each session with a brief presentation on the subject from Tony, and thereafter, open up the floor for written questions and thoughts from you, the audience.

The sessions was moderated, allowing the host to put your questions and comments direct to Tony, and we also made each episode live on our youtube and vimeo channels, as well as sharing on social media.

Episode 3 - Free Body Diagrams

Free body diagrams are used in structural analysis to try to reduce the problem to its simplest description. Where does the load get applied and where does the load get reacted? Free body diagrams can be created for the overall assembly and for each component in that assembly – hence tracking the load path.

This seems like a straightforward procedure – but in fact it is surprisingly easy to get things very wrong!

In this presentation Tony showed a very early example from his stress office days, and talk about an industrial example that had tragic consequences.

Here is your chance to learn some new ideas, pass on tips, or generally join in the discussion!

This series is available for free to the engineering analysis community, as part of NAFEMS' efforts to bring the community together online.

Tony Abbey has created and taught a wealth of FEA training material over the past 20 years. Thousands of engineers across the world have benefited from his live and e-learning based classes. He has developed a reputation for providing the student with an experience that is full of insight gained from his extensive experience, but which also challenges and motivates.Tony has been working with FEA for nearly 40 years, both in Industry and for leading FEA software providers in the UK and the US.

His informal and interactive presentation style allows the key concepts to be taught in a manner which involves participants fully in the course material. Tony presents papers at NAFEMS and other conferences on a regular basis and has been involved with NAFEMS since its formation. He has written a series of very popular articles on FEA for Desktop Engineering magazine.