When a beam is subjected to major axis bending, i.e. bending about the y-axis, it will deflect in the z-direction. This type of bending is sometimes referred to as bending about the strong axis. Analogous, minor axis bending is when a beam is bent about the z-axis, deflecting in the y-direction. This is sometimes called lateral bending or bending about the weak axis.A beam element can be considered to have seven degrees of freedom in each node.

These are translation in x-, y-, and z-direction, rotation about x-, y-, and z-axis and warping.