The axial displacement (u) of a one-dimensional spring element, indicates the distance that each point of the element has moved from the non-loaded position, in a direction parallel to the spring axis. An FEM solution will only give us a value for the axial displacement at each node and there is a linear variation through the element length (L), i.e., between the nodes. A positive displacement means that a point moves to the right (positive x direction) and a negative displacement moves a point to the left (negative x direction).