Like many other FEA engineers, I have a library full of books describing the theory and basis of FEA. Some are great classics: Bath, Hughes, etc. I am happy to have spent hours with them in my graduated studies, but I mainly use them now to adjust the height of my screen. That said – don’t get me wrong – I really do believe that they made me a better FEA engineer.

In my search for a good applied FEA book over the years, I found Mac Donald’s “Practical Stress Analysis with Finite Elements“. A very good one that I recommend, but not as complete as this new publication by experienced FEA engineer Dominique Madier: “Practical Finite Element Analysis for Mechanical Engineers“. This book totally fills the missing link between theory books and FEA software. Madier explains it himself in this webinar: “How to Learn FEA”. I could not agree more with him…

By the way: another good source of practical FEA literature: NAFEMS Publications!