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Twenty-node brick element (C3D20)

This is a general purpose quadratic brick element (3x3x3 integration points). The shape functions can be found in [11]. The node numbering follows the convention of Figure 11 and the integration scheme is given in Figure 12.

Figure 11: 20-node brick element
\begin{figure}\epsfig{file=C3D20.eps,width=10cm}\end{figure}

Figure 12: 3x3x3 integration point scheme in hexahedral elements
\begin{figure}\epsfig{file=Int27.eps,width=8cm}\end{figure}

This is an excellent element for linear elastic calculations. Due to the location of the integration points, stress concentrations at the surface of a structure are well captured. However, for nonlinear calculations the elements exhibits the same disadvantages as the C3D8 element, albeit to a much lesser extent:


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Next: Twenty-node brick element with Up: Element Types Previous: Eight-node brick element with   Contents
Guido Dhondt 2003-08-06