This paper presents a new numerical model for the analysis of beam type structures. The model uses two-noded rotation free finite elements and takes into account material non-linearity, finite displacements, finite rotations and finite strains. The presented numerical model has been implemented into the open source 'Yfdem', which is based on the Combined Finite Discrete Element Method. The performance of the new numerical model was demonstrated on simple benchmark tests, by a comparison with known experimental and analytical results.