Ansys Meshing - Element Order (Linear & Quadratic)
Written by cfd.ninja
Quadratic
The Quadratic option retains midside nodes on elements created in the part or body. All elements will have midside nodes.
If Element Order is set to Quadratic, and if Straight Sided Elements is set to No, the midside nodes will be placed on the geometry so that the mesh elements properly capture the shape of the geometry. However, if the location of a midside node might affect the mesh quality, the midside node may be relaxed to improve the element shape. Therefore, some midside nodes might not follow the shape of the geometry precisely.
Element order sets whether the cells carry nodes only at their corners or also at the midpoints of their edges. Linear elements use corner nodes alone, quadratic ones add the mid-side nodes and can therefore represent curved edges and a varying gradient inside a single cell.
The trade-off is cost. Quadratic elements give more accuracy per cell on curved geometry, and that matters in structural analysis. They also multiply the number of degrees of freedom, so in CFD the common choice is the opposite: linear elements with a finer mesh where the gradients are steep.
A practical rule is to refine the mesh first and raise the element order only when the geometry itself is curved and the result still depends on the mesh.
In this tutorial, you will learn the differences between Linear and Quadratic element order in Ansys Meshing.
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