Identifying elements which include lower-dimensional elements as faces, edges etc
I am trying to use meshes created by gmsh in the FEM software abaqus. However, i have some troubles with the way both programs handle boundaries.
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Gmsh generally creates elements of dimension 0, 1, 2, 3 in that order. A 2d surface of a volume that has some boundary conditions is then handled as a set of 2d elements.
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Abaqus only uses 3d elements for the volume - The surface is characterised by a set of nodes and 3d elements.
To transfer the information about the area the boundary condition is applied to, i need to identify the 3d elements that include the boundary elements (2d) as faces. To transfer information about an edge of the 3d volume, i would need to identify elements that include 1d elements as edges, and so forth.
While this is certainly possible using the API, i am wondering if this information is maybe already accessible in gmsh.
Kind regards Tim