This might be a stupid question but I've tried to fully understand it for quite some time now with no luck. In CFX5, what is difference between nodes, elements and faces. For instance, take the following output as a case: Domain Name : main Total Number of Nodes = 55112, Total Number of Elements = 216311, Total Number of Tetrahedrons = 176323, Total Number of Prisms = 39866, Total Number of Pyramids = 122, Total Number of Faces = 17474.

Hi

If you go back to your ground course in fluid dynamics and the first allusion to discretisation of a fluid domain, you will see that you divide a fluid domain in small volumes that you approximate using tetrahedra in the case of an unstructured mesh like in cfx

the nodes are the points that define the tetrahedra

the prisms in cfx are the prisms generated in the inflation layers

the pyramids are generated sometimes at the interface between the prisms and the tetrahedra, but i'm not sure of this

and i would think that the faces are the ones that define your surface mesh

but you should chek this out

does anybody has a better explanation please ?

cheers

Olivier

Try the help manual for a good explanation of all of the above questions. in CFX 5.5.1 the page is : 327 and is found under: CFX5 Solver, Mathematical Models and Solution Algorithms, Numerical Discretisation. Bob