Rust FEA

RustFEA is a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) library written in Rust. This library aims to provide efficient and robust tools for performing finite element analysis, leveraging the safety and performance benefits of Rust.

Features

• Modular Design for Extension: The library is divided into several modules such as node, elements, simulation, io, utilities, mesh, solver, and bc.
• Dependency Integration: Utilizes popular Rust crates like nalgebra, russell_sparse, and serde for mathematical operations and data serialization.
• Input Formats: Supports reading and writing of input files in the .toml format.

Limitations

• 3D only
• Solid mechanics focused only

Building

To get suitesparse and mumps working on Ubuntu you need to install the following dependencies:

sudo apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
    liblapacke-dev \
    libopenblas-dev \
    libsuitesparse-dev

To build the project you need to have rust and cargo installed then run:

cargo build

Usage

Take a look in the examples/*.toml folder for some example simulation input files.

Here is a basic example to get you started:

cargo run --bin read_input -- examples/tube_benchmark.toml -v

Rust FEA Library Overview

Rust FEA is a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) library written in Rust, designed to provide efficient and robust tools for performing finite element analysis.

Features

• Modular Design: The library includes various modules such as node, elements, simulation, io, utilities, mesh, solver, and bc. Each module is responsible for different aspects of the FEA process, ensuring a clean and organized codebase.
• Dependency Integration: Integration with popular Rust crates like nalgebra for mathematical operations, russell_sparse for sparse matrix computations, and serde for data serialization. This ensures the library is both powerful and flexible.
• Customization: The library supports a wide range of configurations and customizations, allowing users to tailor the simulation and solver settings to their specific needs.

Mesh Support

This library supports the .inp format for importing meshes. Mesh are represented in a struct called MeshAssembly which can also be added together to create a larger mesh or multi body meshes.

• .inp format
• Internal Format: .bin.xz, .json.xz, .bin, .json

Gmsh is recommended for generating meshes then exporting via .inp (selecting export options while saving). You can find many gmsh examples under examples/mesh_src/*.geo

Elements

The library includes various finite elements, each represented as a structure with associated methods.

• 8-Node Isoparametric Solid Element (Brick) (3D)
• 4-Node Isoparametric Surface Element (Quad) (2D)

Boundary Conditions

Boundary conditions used to apply forces or constraints to the problem.

• Fixed Value (Dirichlet)
  • Prescribed Displacement
• Prescribed Force (Neumann)
  • Load
  • Normal Contact: Penalty method

Simulation

This struct encapsulates the entire simulation setup, including the mesh, elements, boundary conditions, and solver settings. It provides a high-level interface for configuring and executing the simulation.

Project File

This struct represents a project. Which can contain mulitple simulations. Any project .toml is loaded in as a Project struct.

Solver

Direct Solving

russell_sparse and nalgebra are used for sparse matrix operations and direct solvers. russell_sparse uses UMFPACK and MUMPS to solve large sparse linear systems of equations.

Explicit Solving

nalgebra is used for matrix operations. Overall there is a focus on element based assembly. Contact is only supported via explicit solving.

Todo

• [~] add tests for common elements and assemblies
• add nodal property outputs
• Use better solver for Ax=b. Upgrade to newest russell library
• Large Deformation
  • Add large deformation elements
  • Handle local material propertie updates
  • Plasticity?
• add intergrations with paraview?
• add an explict solving scheme
• contact
  • Multi-body handling -> Multi-body mesh -> some way to merge meshes together
  • Fix issues with contact on element edges
• Switch config file to use toml format
• New Boundary Conditions
  • Pressure / Normal vector based BC
  • Shear / Tangential vector based BC
• New Element Types
  • 3D 4 node tetrahedra
  • Shell element
• VTL HDF Export
  • Single time step export
  • Multi time step export
• Generalized field handling
• Body forces
• Simple material input handling
• Non-linear material handling

Validations

• Beam problems compared to abaqus and exact solutions

Problems

• What about nodes that are not part of any element?