COMSOL, Inc. a provider of multiphysics modeling, simulation and application design software, has introduced the latest release of the COMSOL Multiphysics and COMSOL Server simulation software environment. Hundreds of user-driven features and enhancements to COMSOL Multiphysics, COMSOL Server, and add-on products have been implemented with an emphasis on accuracy, usability and productivity. From new solvers and methods, to application design and deployment tools, COMSOL software version 5.2a expands the electrical, mechanical, fluid, and chemical design and optimization capabilities.
Thermoviscous acoustics simulation solved with the domain decomposition solver. Local acceleration, total acoustic pressure, and total thermo-viscous power dissipation density are shown. This COMSOL model is used to design microphones and speakers used in consumer products, such as, smartphones, tablets, and laptops. It consists of 2.5 million degrees of freedom and required 14 GB of RAM to solve. Previsously 120 GB were needed using a direct solver.
In COMSOL Multiphysics 5.2a, three new solvers deliver faster and more memory efficient computations. The smoothed aggregation algebraic multigrid (SA-AMG) solver has proven to be particularly efficient for linear elastic analysis, but is also applicable to many other types of analyses. This solver is very memory conservative, making it possible to run structural assemblies with millions of degrees of freedom on a standard desktop or laptop computer.
The complete suite of computational tools provided by COMSOL Multiphysics software and its Application Builder allows simulation specialists to design and optimize their products and create apps for the benefit of colleagues and customers. Simulation apps allow users without any previous experience using simulation software to run the apps for their specific purpose. With version 5.2a, app designers can build even more dynamic apps where the appearance of the user interface can change during run time, centralize unit handling to better serve teams working across different countries, and include hyperlinks and videos.
Magnetic vector hysteresis for the modeling of transformers and ferromagnetic material is introduced. Domain terminal boundary conditions for easier simulation of touchscreens and MEMS devices are now available. Ray tracing simulations can combine graded index and constant index materials in meshed and unmeshed domains. The new Optical Aberration plot type is dedicated to measuring monochromatic aberrations. Two-port networks, fast-frequency sweeps, and nonlinear frequency-mixing are available for high-frequency electromagnetics analysis.
For chemical simulations, surface reaction in reactive pellet beds and a new reacting flow multiphysics interface are available. Battery manufacturers and designers can now model complex 3D assemblies in battery packs using the new single particle battery interface. Discharge and recharge behaviors are supplied by the single particle model at every point in the geometry. This makes it possible to estimate the geometrical current density distribution and the local state of charge in the battery pack.
