Elastic Element
The elastic element is a general 6 × 6 stiffness matrix, with nonzero diagonal terms and zero off-diagonal terms. Use this element to model the stiffness of a component unavailable in CAEPIPE.
An elastic element is input by typing “e” in the Type column or selecting “Elastic element” from the Element Types dialog.
The Elastic element dialog is shown.
The stiffnesses are in the local coordinate system defined by the directions of the local x-, y- and z-axes. As done for all other element types, the positive local x-axis for the elastic element is along the element from the “from” node to the “to” node. The local y-axis should be perpendicular to the local x-axis (i.e., their dot product should be zero). The local z-axis is internally calculated as cross product of the local x- and y-axes.
The elastic element is not subjected to any sustained or thermal expansion loads.