What is a node in Finite Element Analysis
- A node is a coordinate point in 3D space. Nodes define and connect elements in a finite element mesh.
- A node can have up to six degrees of freedom (DOF) for structural analysis: three translational and three rotational.
Creating and Managing Nodes
The meshing software automatically generates nodes during the meshing process. You can also use the Node icons, the commands on the Node menu, and the icons on the Manual Meshing tool-bars to create individual nodes.
The Node menu includes commands which let you create, orient, modify, and manage nodes.
- We can use Reflect to generate nodes by reflecting existing nodes.
- We can also use the Node commands to manage the nodes in your model.
- We can display, list, and delete selected nodes.
Each node has a label that is a unique numeric identifier you can use to identify individual nodes.
When we create a new node, the pre-processing meshing software automatically lists the next node label available for the model. The software won't let you specify a node label that conflicts with an existing label.