The Full Form of APDL is ANSYS Parametric Design Language.

ANSYS is a general purpose finite element modeling package for numerically solving a wide variety of mechanical problems. These problems include: static/dynamic structural analysis (both linear and non-linear), heat transfer and fluid problems, as well as acoustic and electro-magnetic problems.

In general, a finite element solution may be broken into the following three stages. This is a general guideline that can be used for setting up any finite element analysis.

1. Preprocessing: defining the problem; the major steps in preprocessing are given below:
   • Define keypoints/lines/areas/volumes
   • Define element type and material/geometric properties
   • Mesh lines/areas/volumes as required

   The amount of detail required will depend on the dimensionality of the analysis (i.e. 1D, 2D, axi-symmetric, 3D).

    

2. Solution: assigning loads, constraints and solving; here we specify the loads (point or pressure), contraints (translational and rotational) and finally solve the resulting set of equations.

    

3. Postprocessing: further processing and viewing of the results; in this stage one may wish to see:
   • Lists of nodal displacements
   • Element forces and moments
   • Deflection plots
   • Stress contour diagrams