The purpose of this section of your assignment is to familiarise yourself with the basic FE theory and relate it to the fundamental concepts of stress and strain calculations in engineering components. You are required to explain these concepts on the basis of a simple example, for which you will formulate the full solution using the conventional mechanics of materials theory. You will then solve this exact problem using the underlying FE theory (not ABAQUS code) and compare your results with the conventional theory.

compulsory nodes). Alternatively, you can use the following problem and solve the total elongation of the bar using the stiffness matrix calculations, which you can transform from simultaneous force-displacement equations.
 
You will be assessed on how well you have formulated the problem, applied the boundary conditions, and explained how this problem will be solved during  the FE analysis in each and every detail. You are not allowed to use any computer code to solve this part of the problem, and your calculations and equations will have to be explained in detail (including its origin and limitations if any).