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Four-node tetrahedral element (C3D4)

This is a general purpose tetrahedral element (1 integration point). The shape functions can be found in [34]. The node numbering follows the convention of Figure 17.

Figure 17: 4-node tetrahedral element
\begin{figure}\epsfig{file=C3D4.eps,width=10cm}\end{figure}

This element is included for completeness, however, it is not suited for structural calculations unless a lot of them are used (the element is too stiff). Please use the 10-node tetrahedral element instead.



guido dhondt 2005-02-26