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COMSOL announces a major update to the COMSOL Multiphysics software version 6.0. The update builds out the Model Manager server with a web interface — an asset management system — to make it easier for COMSOL users and nonusers alike to manage models, simulation apps, and supplementary and auxiliary files.

COMSOL Multiphysics: from building models and apps to managing simulation projects
Through two decades of development, COMSOL Multiphysics evolved from a software that solved partial differential equations to one that defines the nature of multiphysics modeling: being able to build models with any combination of physics phenomena via the Model Builder. Thereby, engineers versed in the underlying physics and using software to build models began using COMSOL Multiphysics across technology-driven industries, academia, and research organizations for modeling and simulation. Next, COMSOL introduced the Application Builder and concept of simulation apps to expand the realm of who could access simulation to include those who had not traditionally been able to work with models and simulations.

Today, COMSOL completes the environment for managing modeling and simulation projects for product and process design through the recently introduced Model Manager and the Model Manager server with its accompanying asset management system.

About the Model Manager Server and its Asset Management System
Released in December 2021, the Model Manager allows you to:

–Search through models for particular parameter names and feature strings.
–Track model development through version control with model comparison and merging capabilities.
–Upload, link, and administrate supplementary and auxiliary files to a modeling and simulation or development project.

The Model Manager has now been complemented by the Model Manager server’s asset management system, which is accessible through a web interface. In the asset management system, an asset can be considered as a container for links to your model versions, attached supplementary and auxiliary files, as well as various custom metadata fields. With the asset management system, you can itemize assets through model and app files, adding abstracts, setting permissions, and even include thumbnail images of the model at hand.

“As an extension of the COMSOL Multiphysics® simulation platform, the Model Manager server’s asset management system is useful for administrating and managing your models, apps, and simulations in a corporate network environment set up to your own liking,” says Sr. VP of Sales Phil Kinnane. “This could be project-based, model-based, team-based, or similar, according to how you want your organization to structure and organize such work.”

A collaborative environment to cover all elements of an organization
The Model Manager server is a database system that can be managed from either the COMSOL Desktop or a web-based UI. A local installation of any license type of COMSOL Multiphysics with the Model Manager and a local database is usually the initial step for a modeling engineer to acclimatize themselves to how this system can be best used within their organization. From there, full deployment can occur by installing the Model Manager server on a central server. Local installations of COMSOL Multiphysics can connect to the central server with the Model Manager server. “I think organizations will start by moving the tens and hundreds of COMSOL models they have been developing over the years to their asset management systems as a communal model library,” adds Kinnane. “Instead of chasing down the many engineers using the software for different purposes, they can now find and search through those models as a centralized repository instead.”

The full power of the Model Manager Server
COMSOL CTO Ed Fontes describes how the Model Manager server will take an organization’s simulation-driven project to the next level: “The true power of the Model Manager is not only in its ability to manage your simulation data, but in being able to version control and audit your actual model-building process.” He adds, “there are a number of simulation data management systems out there, but COMSOL has focused the Model Manager on the model-building process, such as to easily browse through the model tree of certain models or search for specific features like domain settings, boundary conditions, or study types to revisit, update, or even reuse.”

Internal or external customers may use the database system to keep track and use results from a project. They may also use simulation apps and provide feedback about their measurement and test data by uploading them and reports to the relevant asset. And, of course, contributors on the model development can also add their auxiliary data, such as CAD files and specifications, to the project. “In all,” says Fontes, “the Model Manager server and asset management system truly provide the complete working environment for modeling and simulation projects.”

COMSOL
www.comsol.com

COMSOL, the maker of the COMSOL Multiphysics simulation software, has opened registration for COMSOL Day: Version 6.0, a series of online events held around the world for the computer-aided engineering (CAE) market. Starting on January 27, there will be four events to introduce COMSOL Multiphysics version 6.0 to a global, multiphysics simulation community of innovators and managers in research and product development.

These events showcase how new simulation and collaboration tools introduced with COMSOL® version 6.0 will advance simulation-driven product development. Speakers from COMSOL will present major news and offer a closer look at new functionality in version 6.0, such as the Model Manager, a new simulation data management workspace in COMSOL Multiphysics.

“We are truly excited about the Model Manager,” says Phil Kinnane, senior VP of sales at COMSOL. “It takes us and the CAE industry to the next level in integrating simulation in product development. When mentioning this new tool to some of our experienced, ‘power users’, they immediately recognized how important it will be for their current COMSOL Multiphysics simulation projects.”

Sessions focusing on the Uncertainty Quantification Module will provide an introduction to using sensitivity analysis, reliability analysis, and uncertainty propagation in multiphysics simulations. Software updates for specific application areas are covered in separate, dedicated sessions, such as “Electromagnetics” and “Fluid Flow & Heat Transfer” to name two. Similarly, core functionality news is covered across several dedicated sessions, including “Summary of Major News”, “Geometry and Meshing”, and “Optimization”.

“COMSOL Day attendees have the opportunity to interact with COMSOL engineers during live sessions and ask software developers and support engineers questions directly,” says Lauren Sansone, marketing and events director at COMSOL. “The events bring a live stream of sessions throughout the day, and it is easy for attendees to choose if they want to participate in the entire program from start to finish or only attend specific sessions.”

The COMSOL Day: Version 6.0 event dates are:

January 27 (U.S., 11 a.m. EST)
February 3 (Sweden, 10 a.m. CET)
February 10 (India, 10 a.m. IST)
February 24 (China, 1 p.m. HKT)

Participation from any region at any of the events is welcomed. Please note that the sessions hosted by the COMSOL offices in the U.S., Sweden, and India will be conducted in English, while the event hosted by the office in China will be in Chinese.

These events are open to all, and attendance is free of charge. For program details, click here.

COMSOL, the leading provider of software solutions for multiphysics modeling has released version 6.0 of the COMSOL Multiphysics software. The release introduces the Model Manager, a new workspace in COMSOL Multiphysics that enables efficient simulation data management and collaboration. Also introduced with version 6.0 is the Uncertainty Quantification Module. This is a new add-on product to COMSOL Multiphysics that uses probabilistic design methods to quantify uncertainty in analyses and predetermined safety margins. Version 6.0 further brings major improvements to the solvers with performance speedup by a factor of 10 in engineering areas such as heat radiation and models subjected to nonlinear structural material behavior. With version 6.0, COMSOL promises to boost the productivity of engineers, their teams, and their enterprises in the areas of product design, process development, and manufacturing.

The Model Manager Provides Structure, Version Control, and Effective Collaboration
The Model Manager is fully integrated in the COMSOL Multiphysics user interface and is designed for simulation data management, version control, tracking changes, and advanced search functionality within models, CAD data, and other related external files. It provides a structured workspace where colleagues and teams can collaborate within their organizations and even with external parties, putting the focus on effective product design and innovation. Efficient data storage that keeps only changes made to previous versions and the easy setup of branches and merging them for parallel model development, also contribute to an organization’s efficient modeling and simulation workflow.

“The Model Manager expands on COMSOL’s cutting-edge multiphysics modeling capabilities and our fast-paced strategy of placing COMSOL Multiphysics as the primary tool for democratizing simulation in the CAE market,” says Svante Littmarck, CEO and president of COMSOL. “We now complement our revolutionary Model Builder and Application Builder, for developing multiphysics models and simulation apps, with the Model Manager for model development and simulation data management. Together, this functionality will facilitate collaboration within engineering groups, across departments and enterprises, and even between countries. This will inevitably lead to better process and manufacturing designs as all competencies of an organization are harnessed effectively.”

To allow full collaboration across enterprises, COMSOL’s floating network license type allows users from anywhere within and outside of the license holder’s organization to access a centralized Model Manager installation. This also includes collaborators across geographical and territorial borders. Additionally, a local Model Manager installation is included with all licenses — even those that are not floating-network based — to provide a platform for building an individual user’s file storage structure, while updating versions and tracking changes of their modeling projects.

Sensitivity and reliability analyses are enhanced through the Uncertainty Quantification Module
While the Model Manager expands COMSOL’s footprint within the world of engineering design and development, the Uncertainty Quantification Module makes it possible to produce more complete, accurate, and useful multiphysics models. Based on probabilistic design methods, users can, with reliability analysis, look at questions such as how manufacturing tolerances affect the intended performance of the final product, to prevent over- and under-designs of devices and processes. Screening and sensitivity analyses reveal which parameters are more important than others, which can be used to efficiently test the validity of basic model assumptions, for example, and uncertainty propagation is used to assign probability distributions to the output quantities of interest.

“A strength of the Uncertainty Quantification Module is that it can be applied to any physical simulation covered by COMSOL Multiphysics,” says Jacob Yström, technology director of numerical analysis at COMSOL. “You are not limited to a certain field or application area, such as structural analysis, but can perform the same types of uncertainty analyses on applications based on acoustics, fluid flow, electromagnetics, and so on, and even when these phenomena are coupled. This makes this product wide-ranging and very powerful.”

COMSOL Multiphysics Version 6.0 improves performance and expands modeling capabilities
COMSOL Multiphysics version 6.0 includes important updates to the software platform and add-on products. This includes performance improvements through speedup and memory consumption by a factor of 10 for certain engineering applications. Feature enhancements include more efficient electromagnetic simulation of PCB designs and a new realm for acoustics modeling: flow-induced noise.

Details about new features and improvements across the entire product suite are available in the COMSOL Multiphysics Version 6.0 Release Highlights.

COMSOL
www.comsol.com

By Dixita Patel

Recent advances for pacemaker technology include improved electronics and smaller batteries, making the development of leadless cardiac pacemakers (LCPs) possible. An LCP is a self-contained (capsule-like) generator and electrode system that eliminates the need for pocket or transvenous leads that often cause malfunctions. The current LCPs on the market pace at a single location of the heart, but for patients who require more than single-chamber stimulation, a multinode LCP system (Figure 1) can be used. Multinode LCP systems require synchronization between all of the implanted devices to function properly. However, the standard communication techniques used may be unsuitable due to constraints in terms of power consumption and size.

To help make the system and communication more efficient, researchers at MicroPort CRM are using simulation to investigate these design challenges using galvanic intrabody communication (IBC). IBC provides a power-optimized solution to facilitate communication between devices, which in turn helps to synchronize multinode LCP systems.

Intrabody communication transceivers for LCP applications

Intrabody communication (IBC) is a near-field communication method that uses an electrode pair to send an impulse through body tissue to a second electrode pair that receives the signal. This method works with ultralow power, and no additional antennas are needed because the electrodes used for pacing also provide the electric field for the communication.

Mirko Maldari, an electronic engineer at MicroPort CRM, and his team proposed a new methodology to further characterize these types of communication channels. “With IBC, because electrodes are used to communicate [instead of coils and antennas], we can optimize both power consumption and size,” said Maldari.

In their research, an in vivo study was performed using a system that consisted of two capsules that were implanted in the right atrium and right ventricle of a heart shown in Figure 1. Further analyses involved the COMSOL Multiphysics software to measure the attenuation of the channel and estimate how much power is dissipated in the tissue.

Analyzing IBC pathloss with simulation

The team at MicroPort collaborated with Synopsys Inc., an electronic design automation company, using the Synopsys Simpleware software to develop a model of a human torso that would be importable into the COMSOL Multiphysics software (Figure 3). The model is based on a validated human phantom from IT’IS Foundation Zurich; more specifically, the “Duke” model, which represents a 34-year-old male.

The geometrical model was created to include organs, muscles, bones, soft tissue, and cartilage. After importing into COMSOL Multiphysics, an approximated version of the heart chambers was built to distinguish heart muscle from blood. Maldari said: “It was important for my application for these features to be included because they have different electrical properties.” The team then designed two identical LCP capsules in COMSOL Multiphysics to estimate the attenuation levels of the intracardiac channel.

The capsules were studied at two different orientations, both at a channel distance of 9 cm. Simulations were performed with a quasistatic approach using the Electric Currents interface in the AC/DC Module, an add-on product to COMSOL Multiphysics, to calculate the channel attenuation in a frequency range between 40 KHz and 20 MHz. The results in Figure 4 show the positions of the right atrium (RA) capsule of the worst-case scenario (perpendicular) and the best-case scenario (parallel). The best-case scenario shows a higher differential voltage across the receiving dipole. The attenuation levels of both scenarios can be seen in Figure 5, where the difference is ~11 dB. From 40 kHz to 20 MHz, the attenuation decreases by ~5 dB for both cases. From the results, Maldari and his team were able to verify that relative position and orientation of the capsules strongly impacts the channel attenuation.

For MicroPort, it was important to estimate the attenuation levels before preparing the prototype. “As researchers and scientists, we try to reduce the amount of animal trials, and simulation has allowed that,” said Maldari. “It is a powerful tool to estimate the behavior of the signals within biological tissues before investigating them experimentally.” The use of simulation allowed the team to define accurate models for galvanic IBC communication and optimize transceivers for LCP systems.

Future plans for IBC

MicroPort’s future plans involve further studies, where the effect of certain input parameters — such as the electrode size and dipole lengths — on a more complete set of electric field parameters will be investigated. This would help them point out the attenuation difference between diastolic and systolic periods. As of now, the researchers are working on the design of an ultralow-power receiver for LCP synchronization purposes. The new receiver could potentially mark groundbreaking innovation for dual-chamber pacemakers.

COMSOL
www.comsol.com

Reference
Maldari, Mirko, et al. “Wide frequency characterization of Intra-Body Communication for Leadless Pacemakers”, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 67, no. 11, pp. 3223–3233, 2020.

Synopsys and Simpleware are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Synopsys, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. COMSOL Multiphysics is a registered trademark of COMSOL AB.