Simcenter 3D Thermal/Flow, Electronic Systems Cooling, and Space Systems Thermal elements

The following tables list the Simcenter 3D Thermal/Flow, Simcenter 3D Electronic Systems Cooling, and Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal elements that are supported. They also list the physical property tables that can be defined for each element type.

The Thermal/Flow, Electronic Systems Cooling, and Space Systems Thermal elements can be used as regular elements or axisymmetric elements.

Some physical property tables can be used with more than one element type. For example, the Thin Shell physical property table can be used to define Tri3 Thin Shell, Tri6 Thin Shell, Quad4 Thin Shell, and Quad8 Thin Shell elements. In addition, you can specify different types of physical property tables for the different elements.

0D elements

Element name	Property type	Physical property table names	Description
0D Lump	Lumped Mass	Concentrated Mass	Concentrated lumped mass element
Lumped Mass Axisymmetric	Beam	Concentrated axisymmetric lumped mass element equivalent to a circular beam in 3D

1D elements

Element name	Property type	Physical property table names	Description
1D Beam	Beam	Beam	1D beam element
Beam Axisymmetric	Thin Shell	1D axisymmetric beam element equivalent to a cylindrical thin shell in 3D
1D Duct	Duct	N/A	1D duct element with specified cross-sectional area
Duct with Thick Wall	N/A	1D duct element that convects to its thick wall
Duct with Mass Flow	N/A	1D pressureless duct element
Duct Axisymmetric	Duct	1D axisymmetric duct element equivalent to an annular duct in 3D
Duct with Mass Flow Axisymmetric	N/A	1D axisymmetric duct element equivalent to a pressureless annular duct in 3D

2D elements

Element name	Description
Tri3 Thin Shell	2D linear triangular shell element
Tri6 Thin Shell	2D parabolic triangular shell element
Quad4 Thin Shell	2D linear quadrilateral shell element
Quad8Thin Shell	2D parabolic quadrilateral shell element

All these 2D element types can have the property types and their respective physical property tables listed in the following table.

Property type	Physical property table names	Description
Thin Shell	Thin Shell	Thin shells have a material, a thickness, and thermo-optical properties. They can be modeled as either one-layer or two-layer thin shells.
Null Shell	N/A	Null shells have only thermo-optical properties. They can be modeled as either one-layer or two-layer thin shells.
Multi-Layer Shell Uniform	Multi-Layer Shell Uniform	Multi-layer shells are thin shells with multiple uniform or non-uniform layers and thermo-optical properties.
Multi-Layer Shell Non-Uniform	Multi-Layer Shell Non-Uniform
PCB Stack	PCB Stack	PCB stack models a printed circuit board without using 3D solid elements.
Shell Axisymmetric	N/A	Axisymmetric shell element equivalent to a cylindrical solid in 3D.

3D elements

Element name	Description
Tet4	3D linear tetrahedral element
Tet10	3D parabolic tetrahedral element
Tet(mixed order)	3D mixed order tetrahedral element
Hexa8	3D linear hexahedral element
Hexa20	3D parabolic hexahedral element
Wedge6	3D linear pentahedral element
Wedge15	3D parabolic pentahedral element
Pyr5	3D linear pyramid element
Pyr13	3D parabolic pyramid element
Pyr(mixed order)	3D mixed order pyramid element

3D elements do not have physical property tables.

Learn more

Axisymmetric thermal modeling in non-axisymmetric solutions

1D duct flow networks

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Nastran elements

Multiphysics elements

Abaqus elements

ANSYS elements

LS-DYNA elements

I-deas universal file elements

Simcenter Samcef elements

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Simcenter 3D Thermal/Flow, Electronic Systems Cooling, and Space Systems Thermal boundary conditions

Thermal/Flow, Electronic Systems Cooling, and Space Systems Thermal

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