Inter-Element Continuity
Vertical Displacement (v)
Continuous
The vertical displacement (v) is continuous within each element. Furthermore, since adjacent elements share nodes, the vertical displacement must also be continuous through the mesh. The sharing of nodes requires that the vertical displacement of adjacent elements be the same at the shared node and therefore continuous through the element interface. This means that a plot of the vertical displacement will be continuous and not have any gaps, such as in the figure below with shared node 2. It should be noted that in order to enforce element continuity, the nodes at element interfaces (such as node 2 in the figure below) must be shared. If each element has a separate node at the interface, then each element could also have a different displacement and a gap could result in the structure.
