FEAP for GNU Linux

José M.ª Goicolea, 24 oct 2013

FEAP has been developed by Prof. R.L. Taylor from the University of California at Berkeley, and it contains work from a number of renowned experts and researchers in finite elements. It is an advanced program for linear and nonlinear models, under static or dynamic analysis. FEAP is employed frequently as a base for research work in academic groups.

The binary versions of FEAP which may be downloaded here incorporate a number of additions, bug corrections, extensions and new elements and materials. These have been programmed by researchers in the computational mechanics group (Felipe Gabaldón, José M.ª Goicolea, Javier Rodríguez Soler, Sergio Blanco). The binaries have been obtained with the GNU gfortran (gcc) compiler as well as the Intel fortran compiler, for Linux, Mac OS X or Windows (cygwin environment). The program FEAP as such consists of only one binary file.

FEAP is executed from the shell command terminal and uses an X11 graphics sserver (available under Linux/Unix, Mac OS X and Windows+Cygwin).

Detailed instructions to install FEAP in Linux:

The shell command terminal may be found in Ubuntu under Applications / Accesories.

1. If your Linux distribution is a recent one, such as Ubuntu 11.04 or newer, install the package xfonts-75dpi which is not loaded by defect (in previous versions these fonts were included in the basic Xorg packages and this was not necessary). From the terminal execute the following command:
   $ sudo apt-get install xfonts-75dpi
   (Alternatively, you may execute the graphic interface synaptic with system administrator privileges and install the said package.)
2. Download the FEAP executable file
   • compiled with gcc/gfortran for linux 32bit: feap81_linuxgfortran32
   • compiled with gcc/gfortran for linux 64bit: feap81_linuxgfortran64
   • compiled with intel fortran for linux 64bit: feap81_linuxifort64
     (intel fortran version may be slightly faster).
   Store the downloaded file in a dedicated folder. For instance, wthin the user home folder create a subfolder named "feap81" and copy it there.
3. From a terminal:
   • Make sure the downloaded file has permission for execution:
     $ cd feap81; chmod +x feap81_linux* ; ls -l feap81_linux*
     you should see a line such as the following, with "x" permissions:
     -rwxr-xr-x 1 goico users 6794494 2010-05-10 08:38 feap81_linuxifort64
     
   • For a friendlier use of FEAP, create a symbolic link in a folder which is in the system path for executables ($PATH), such as "/usr/local/bin":
     $ sudo ln -s feap81_linuxifort64 /usr/local/bin/feap
     It will now be possible to use FEAP from the terminal located in any work folder, simply issuing the command "feap".
4. Test FEAP, running one of the following models:
   • Brazilian test (linear elasticity, static) [Ibrasil]
   • Taylor bar impact (large strain plasticity, dynamic) [Itayl]
   Download the file with the FEAP model data, copy in a work folder, and from a terminal execute feap. At the end type "q" and twice the return key.

• Link to the downloaded FEAP binary for universal access:
  [Pantallazo-1.png]
• Execution of FEAP test cases:
  [Pantallazo-2.png] [Pantallazo-3.png] [Pantallazo-4.png] [Pantallazo-5.png]