Most of the FENSAP-ICE solvers are based on the Finite Element Method. In FEM, the element, not the node, is the basic building block of the grid and the table of connectivity of the nodes to the elements is its most important feature. FEM supports a great variety of element types. Fortunately, the simplest linear elements are ideal for fluid dynamics applications. The table below shows the characteristics of the four types of linear elements supported by FENSAP-ICE.

Table 14.1: Elements

Element geometry	Face number	Node Ordering	Node layout
4-node tetrahedron ielgeom = 2	1	2-3-4
	2	1-4-3
	3	1-2-4
	4	1-3-2
5-node pyramid ielgeom = 5	1	1-4-3-2
	2	1-2-5
	3	2-3-5
	4	3-4-5
	5	4-1-5
6-node prism ielgeom = 3	1	2-3-6-5
	2	3-1-4-6
	3	1-2-5-4
	4	1-3-2
	5	4-5-6
8-node brick ielgeom = 1	1	1-4-3-2
	2	1-5-8-4
	3	4-8-7-3
	4	2-3-7-6
	5	1-2-6-5
	6	5-6-7-8