Element

Description

Solid(continuum)

Includes first-order(linear) interpolation elements and second-order(quadratic) interpolation elements in one, tow, and three dimensions.

Shells

Includes both axisymmetric and general shell geomtries.

Membranes

Used to represent thin surfaces in space that offer strenth as membranes but have no bending stiffness.

Beams

Allow both bending and stretching.  Three-dimensional beams aloow warping of the cross-section

Special purpose stress elements

Lumped masses, rotary inertia, springs, dashpots, drag chains, elbows, tube-support, line springs, flexible joints, fluid-filled cavities, nuclear fuel subassembly.

User-defined elements

Allows the user to introduce "user element" types into a model in a very general way.

Special purpose contact elements

Used for contact problems not supported by the "contact pair" approach.