Page 34 - Process Modelling and Simulation With Finite Element Methods

Introduction to FEMLAB 21

Figure 0.14 Mesh mode shows the existing mesh and permits specification of mesh parameters for
the elliptic mesh generator routine.
The appendix, a MATLABBEMLAB primer for vector calculus, is a
compromise between the recurrent suggestion of students taking the module for
more MATLAB instruction and my desire for the students to grasp vector
calculus more intuitively. I am actually a late convert to MATLAB, with
apologies to Cleve Moler, its creator. I was one of the graduate students gifted
with the beta test edition of MATLAB 1.0 while he was developing it. At the
time, computational power was expensive and there was a bias against
interpreted environments for scientific computing. To programmers, the same
matrix utilities were available as library subroutines, and the final product, a
compiled executable, was more efficient. MATLAB has come a long way since
version l.Obeta, and the number of man years and breadth of applications in the
toolboxes, as well as judicious use of compilation within the environment,
simply invalidates my early prejudices. I cannot access programming libraries
with anywhere near the functionality of the MATLAB toolboxes. The GUIs for
the toolboxes make manmonths of programming effort evaporate at the touch of
a button (OK, the click of a mouse). And if speed is still an issue, the MATLAB
C compiler is available. Or just my favorite trick of running MATLAB as a
background job (no GUIs to clutter the memory) is usually sufficient for big
jobs. So to get the most functionality out of FEMLAB, MATLAB programming
ability is valuable. But anything other than a primer is outside the scope of this
book. I presume a modest MATLAB familiarity of the reader which is readily