Abaqus Elements Guide

Abaqus has an extensive element library to provide a powerful set of tools for solving many different problems.

Five aspects of an element characterize its behavior:

  • Family

  • Degrees of freedom (directly related to the element family)

  • Number of nodes

  • Formulation

  • Integration

Each element in Abaqus has a unique name, such as T2D2, S4R, C3D8I, or C3D8R. The element name identifies each of the five aspects of an element. For details on defining elements, see Element definition.