Different type of cell shapes in FEA

Different type of cell shapes in FEA

We will use different type of cells in computational studies some of them are two dimensional and others are three dimensional. Lets have a look at them in a little brief

Two - Dimensional

We will commonly use two types of two-dimensional cells shapes they are triangle and quadrilateral.

Triangle

This type of elements having 3 edges and we can consider it as one of the simplest cell type. most of the cases 2d elements are called surface meshes. It is easy to create and mostly used in Un structured mesh type.

First order elements having 3 nodes and second order elements having 6 nodes.

First Order Element

                                Unstructured Traingle                                           Second Order Element

Quadrilateral

These elements having basic four sides commonly used in Structured mesh. First Order Elements having 4 nodes and Second order elements having 8 nodes.

                                                  
                                                                 Structured Mesh

Three - Dimensional 

The basic 3 Dimensional element are the tetra hedron, Quadrilateral Pyramid, Traingular Prisam and hexa hedron. These all having traingular and quadrilateral faces. Prism and Hexa hedra are extruded models of traingle and quadrilaterals.

Tetra Hedran

A tetra hedron has 4 vortices, 6 edges and 4 traingular faces. This can be generated autometically while meshing 3D Volumes.

Tets First order and Second order

Pyramids

Pyramid elements has 5 nodes 8 edges, 4 traingular faces and one quad face. It is mainly used as a conecting element between Quads and traingles. Mostly used in Hybrid Mesh Type.

First order and second order Pyramids

Trangular Prism

A trainglular prism have 6 vertices, 8 edges and 2 trangular faces, 3 Quadri lateral faces. This type if meshes are more efficient in Boundary layer problems.

Hexa Hedron

These cells are called as Cubes also. This cells has 8 nodes, 12 edges, 6 Quadrilateral faces. These are the acuurate mesh cells mostly used in Structured mesh.

First order and second order Hexa Hedra

Poly Hedron

These are the Advanced cells in all the types. This cells might have any number of nodes nad edges so it consumes more computation time but gives more accuracy