Abstract
An advanced design environment , which is based on adaptive and knowledge -based finite elements (INTELMESH), has been developed. Unlike other approaches, INTEMMESH incorporates the information about the object geometry as well as the boundary and loading conditions to generate an ${\alpha}$-priori finite element mesh which is more refined around the critical regions of the problem domain. INTEMMESH is designed for planar domains and axisymmetric 3-D structures of elasticity and heat transfer subjected to mechanical and thermal loading . It intelligently identifies the critical regions/points in the problem domain and utilize the new concepts of substructuring and wave propagation to choose the proper mesh size for them. INTEMMESH generates well-shaped triangular elements by applying trangulartion and Laplacian smoothing procedures. The adaptive analysis involves the intial finite elements analyze and an efficient ${\alpha}$-posteriori error analysis involves the initial finite element anal sis and an efficient ${\alpha}$-posteriori error analysis and estimation . Once a problem is defined , the system automatically builds a finite element model and analyzes the problem though automatic iterative process until the error reaches a desired level. It has been shown that the proposed approach which initiates the process with an ${\alpha}$-priori, and near optimum mesh of the object , converges to the desired accuracy in less time and at less cost. Such an advanced design/analysis environment will provide the capability for rapid product development and reducing the design cycle time and cost.