EK702

Sometimes it becomes necessary in a model to combine different kinds of elements, such as beams and plane elements. The problem with combining these elements is that they have different degrees of freedom at each node. The beam allows for transverse displacement and rotation at each node, while the plane element only has in-plane displacements
at each node. The beam can resist a concentrated moment at a node, whereas a plane element cannot. Therefore, if a beam element is connected to a plane element at a single node, the result will be a hinge connection.