Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) FEA Case Study: preprocessing
Ready for building the FEA model (known as preprocessing) 
Preprocessing is the actual creation of the FEA model. It is the creation of the FEA mesh or meshes (representing the materials used) and all boundary conditions (shown complete above) comprising constraints, restraints and loads (both structural and thermal). The FEA model represents the best approximation, or the total sum of knowledge known about the real world use of the part. The part enables the use of a geometry based analysis, which also incorporates all the alterations required to apply the necesarry boundary conditions. The part was further modified by creating a tyre contact patch, via 'splitting' the surface of the tyre. The size of the contact patch was a guesstimate, a preliminary FEA could be performed just to evaluate the tyre's contact patch (and any stress induced in the wheel) under the cars own weight. The results of this analysis could then be fed back in to this anlaysis to see how the wheel performs under impact. But for simplicity (and time), this was not performed.