Introduction

In the last Lecture, we started developing 1-D finite element code. To make the coding simple, we have chosen the specifications on the geometry, material and forces as stated in section 14.1 (Fig. 14.1). As a common practice, we divided the code in 3 parts: (i) Pre-processor, (ii) Processor and (iii) Post-Processor. We also discussed the functions of each part. The pre-processor part of the code was divided into 3 steps. The coding for the last step, namely creation of the data about integration points and shape function has already been done in the form of subroutine SHAPEALL in Lecture 12. In this lecture, we shall discuss the algorithm for first 2 steps: (i) reading the input data about the domain, geometry, material, forces, boundary conditions and mesh, and (ii) making the mesh, that is, generating the coordinate vector and connectivity matrix.