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Cataloguing the elements belonging to a given node

A node can belong to several elements of different types. The structure to store this dependence consists of two fields: a one-dimensional field iponoel and a two-dimensional field inoel. For node i the value j1=iponoel(i) points to row j1 in field inoel containing in its first column the number k1 of an element to which node i belongs, in its second column the local number l1 which node i assumes in the topology of the element and in its third column the row number j2 in field inoel where another element to which node i belongs is listed. If no further element exists, this entry is zero (Figure [*]).

Figure: Structures to store all elements to which a given node belongs
\begin{figure}\epsfig{file=iponoel.eps,width=10cm}\end{figure}

Notice that this structure allows the node to belong to totally different element types, e.g. a beam element, a shell element and a plane stress element.