Comparison of Analytical and Numerical Solutions as Starting Point to Obtain Confidence and Reliable Numerical Results in Commercial FEM Software

The article deals with the starting point for learning to use commercial FEM-based software. Finite Element Method (FEM) is indeed the most used method in continuum mechanics for determining the distribution of fields of unknown quantities such as mechanical stress, displacement, temperature, heat flow, etc. However, the most used commercial software is general and not specified for specific tasks and thus the problem of a suitable computational model, boundary conditions, applied finite elements, etc. can arise, which also implies the reliability of the results. For the student, to gain self-confidence in the results, assess them, and obtain professional engineering estimates, it is a good starting point in the initial teaching stages to solve tasks for which the analytical solution is known and then verify by the numerical results. This approach is a suitable starting point for gaining confidence and obtaining reliable numerical results for solving more complex tasks in the next steps of education in FEM analyses. An example of the mentioned approach is shown in the article.