This Example Manual is an indispensable part of the documentation to the finite element code Package for Machine Design (PMD).

PMD is a modern, platform-independent, general-purpose finite element program for engineering problems in solid continuum mechanics. It is an in-house code, with a long, twenty-five year’s tradition, presently being maintained and developed by the staff of the Department of Impact and Waves in Solids of the Institute of Thermomechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

PMD has a modular structure allowing efficient solutions of problems in statics, dynamics and heat transfer, covering linear and nonlinear constitutive relations in the framework of the classical engineering formulation as well as the description, taking care of large rotations and strains. Contact problems are provided for.

PMD runs on different platforms—on PCs, workstations and on supercomputers (Cray and NEC). The supercomputer version is fully vectorized and presently runs about 30 times faster on NEC SX-4 than on an advanced PC. Pre- and post-processing are secured by GFEM and FEMAP interactive graphic tools.

As an in-house code with its developers always at hand in the Institute of Thermomechanics it allows easy and fast modifications according to its customers’ needs. PMD has been certified by the Czech National Agency for Nuclear Safety for the use in nuclear engineering.

The Example Manual is divided into chapters dealing with elastostatics, heat transfer, dynamics, geometrically nonlinear problems, and contact problems. Each chapter contains a series of worked-out examples, with complete input and output data file listings. The results are presented in the form of graphs and tables with pertinent discussion of data obtained. The results are compared with analytical solutions, aiding thus a proper understanding of both the physical formulation of the problem in question and the numerical approaches.

This manual, together with the User Manual and Reference Manual, allows the user to become familiar with the PMD structure, modules, and procedures. It dutifully verifies the correctness of the code by means of the standard finite element benchmarks and at the same time serves as an efficient tool for the education of undergraduate and postgraduate students in continuum mechanics, numerical mathematics and programming.