Choosing the Appropriate Element for an Analysis Type

Abaqus has an extensive element library.

The Abaqus element library contains the following:

  • stress/displacement elements, including contact elements, connector elements such as springs, and special-purpose elements such as Eulerian elements and surface elements;
  • pore pressure elements;
  • coupled temperature-displacement elements;
  • coupled thermal-electrical-structural elements;
  • coupled temperature–pore pressure displacement elements;
  • heat transfer or mass diffusion elements;
  • forced convection heat transfer elements;
  • fluid pipe and fluid pipe connector elements;
  • thermal fluid pipe and thermal fluid pipe connector elements;
  • coupled thermal-electrical elements;
  • coupled thermal-electrochemical elements;
  • coupled thermal-electrochemical-structural elements;
  • coupled thermal-electrochemical-structural–pore pressure elements;
  • piezoelectric elements;
  • electromagnetic elements;
  • acoustic elements;
  • poroelastic acoustic elements; and
  • user-defined elements.

Within Abaqus/Standard or Abaqus/Explicit, a model can contain elements that are not appropriate for the particular analysis type chosen; such elements will be ignored. However, an Abaqus/Standard model cannot contain elements that are not available in Abaqus/Standard; likewise, an Abaqus/Explicit model cannot contain elements that are not available in Abaqus/Explicit.

This page discusses:

See Also
About the Element Library
In Other Guides
Element type assignment

Products Abaqus/Standard Abaqus/Explicit Abaqus/CAE