All truss element names begin with the letter “T.” The next two characters
indicate the dimensionality of the element—“2D” for two-dimensional trusses and
“3D” for three-dimensional trusses. The final character represents the number
of nodes in the element.
- Truss element
library
-
Linear and quadratic trusses are available in two and three dimensions.
Quadratic trusses are not available in
Abaqus/Explicit.
- Degrees of
freedom
-
Truss elements have only translational degrees of freedom at each node.
Three-dimensional truss elements have degrees of freedom 1, 2, and 3, while
two-dimensional truss elements have degrees of freedom 1 and 2.
- Element
properties
-
All truss elements must refer to a truss section property that associates a
material property definition with the element and specifies its cross-sectional
area.
- Formulation and
integration
-
In addition to the standard formulation, a hybrid truss element formulation
is available in
Abaqus/Standard.
It is useful for modeling very stiff links whose stiffness is much greater than
that of the overall structure.
- Element output
variables
-
Axial stress and strain are available as output for truss elements.