Abaqus Elements Guide

The Abaqus Elements Guide describes the extensive element library that Abaqus provides as a powerful set of tools for solving many different problems.

This guide is a part of the Abaqus® documentation collection, which describes all the capabilities of the Abaqus finite element analysis technology used in SIMULIA® applications.

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.