COMSOL

COMSOL, Inc., provider of software solutions for multiphysics modeling and application design, is offering a preview of the upcoming release of COMSOL Multiphysics version 5.6 at the COMSOL Conference 2020 North America, October 7–8.   COMSOL 5.6, to be released in fall 2020, brings faster and more memory-efficient solvers, better CAD assembly handling, application layout templates, and a range of new graphics features including clip planes, realistic material rendering, and partial transparency. Four new products expand the modeling power of COMSOL Multiphysics for the simulation of fuel cells, electrolyzers, polymer flow, and control systems.

Clip planes, solver efficiency for multicore and cluster computations, and improved handling of CAD assemblies
Clip planes are one of several foundational upgrades to the COMSOL graphics rendering engine and enable easier selection of boundaries and domains inside of complex CAD models. Other graphics news in the new version include visualizations that are partly opaque and partly transparent; realistic material rendering of, for example, steel, glass, and water; and the ability to make imported images part of a visualization.

The solution time has decreased by 30% or more for many types of simulations. The solvers are significantly more efficient with respect to computation time and memory usage for multicore and cluster computations. Handling of larger CAD assemblies has improved with more robust solid operations and easier detection of gaps and overlaps in assemblies.

Application templates and control knobs
New application templates, available in the Application Builder, which is integrated in COMSOL Multiphysics, provide standardized layouts that include input fields, buttons, ribbon tabs, and graphics windows with options for desktop, tablet, and smartphone layouts. A template wizard guides the user to create an organized user interface based on any COMSOL Multiphysics model. In the Application Builder, the suite of user interface elements, or form objects, has been extended with knobs that can be controlled by dragging and rotating with the mouse pointer or touch input.

Introducing the Fuel Cell & Electrolyzer Module
The new Fuel Cell & Electrolyzer Module provides engineers with state-of-the-art modeling and simulation tools for hydrogen fuel cells and water electrolyzers, along with general-purpose tools for realistic fluid flow and electrochemical simulations based on COMSOL’s multiphysics technology. Using the new module, engineers can include charge transport, electrode reactions, thermodynamics, gas-phase diffusion, porous media flow, and two-phase flow when analyzing and optimizing technology for hydrogen vehicles and energy storage.

Introducing the Polymer Flow Module
With the new Polymer Flow Module, modeling and simulation can be used to design and optimize processes involving non-Newtonian fluids, ensuring the quality of these fluids within the polymer, food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, household, and fine chemicals industries. The new module can account for a multitude of multiphysics effects. Examples include when the properties of a fluid vary as a function of temperature and composition, to model curing and polymerization, or when a non-Newtonian fluid affects a mechanical structure, such as for a biological fluid moving through a peristaltic pump.

Introducing LiveLink for Simulink
Control systems engineers can use the new LiveLink for Simulink product for co-simulation of COMSOL Multiphysics and Simulink from the MathWorks. LiveLink for Simulink makes it possible to insert a COMSOL Multiphysics block into a Simulink model for running nonlinear COMSOL Multiphysics simulations in the time domain driven by Simulink. This product is useful for automotive and aerospace industries, including battery simulations and digital twins.

Introducing the Liquid & Gas Properties Module
The new Liquid & Gas Properties Module is used to compute properties for gases, liquids, and mixtures such as density, viscosity, thermal conductivity, and heat capacity as functions of composition, pressure, and temperature. Having high-quality fluid and fluid mixture properties allows for more realistic acoustics, CFD, chemical, and heat transfer simulations.

Faster and more memory-efficient solvers for a range of applications
Users working with large models having millions of degrees of freedom have seen great improvements in solver performance over the last few versions of COMSOL Multiphysics. In version 5.6, the general performance improvements give around a 50% decrease in assembly and solution time for midsized benchmark models. For performance on clusters, the finite element assembly and solution time has decreased by 30% for many types of analyses. Another improvement for users running on clusters includes an upgraded domain decomposition method that can now be used for a wider range of simulations. For acoustics simulations, a new boundary element method formulation enables analyses of an order of magnitude larger acoustic volumes. For CFD simulations, the solution time on clusters has decreased by about 30% using iterative solvers and about 50% using domain decomposition. A new eigenvalue solver called FEAST, well suited for parallel computations, has several important uses, including mode analysis for optical waveguides and laser cavities. In the Optimization Module, a new general-purpose, gradient-based solver called IPOPT has important applications in, for example, shape optimization.

Laminated iron cores, parasitic inductance, and ferroelectric materials
The material library included with the AC/DC Module has been extended to include 322 magnetic materials from Bomatec. The material data includes several types of permanent magnets, such as NdFeB, SmCo, and AlNiCo, with electromagnetic- and temperature-dependent properties. The AC/DC Module now provides specialized tools for the extraction of parasitic inductance with L-matrix computations, which is essential to printed circuit board design. For nonlinear magnetic analysis, laminated iron core losses in electric motors and transformers can now be accurately represented using a new set of nonlinear material models. A new option for resonance frequency computations makes this important functionality available in the AC/DC Module with functionality for coupled finite element and electrical circuits eigenfrequency computations. This enables computation of low to medium resonance frequencies of coils and other inductive devices. A new advanced ferroelectric material model for electrostatics makes it possible to analyze dielectric materials with polarization saturation and hysteresis, with applications for ferroelectric capacitors and energy harvesting devices.

Fast port sweeps and scattering
The RF Module and Wave Optics Module provide a new option for port sweeps, enabling faster computations of full S-parameters or transmission, and reflection coefficient matrices. This functionality can be applied to the analysis of passive 5G components such as microwave filters with a large number of ports. A new modeling tool for approximate asymptotic scattering allows for quick far-field and radar cross-section (RCS) analysis for convex-shaped objects. A new set of postprocessing tools makes it easier to visualize and analyze polarization, with important applications for a variety of periodic structures including metamaterials for optics and microwaves. The new version of the Ray Optics Module includes faster ray tracing and specialized tools for scattering from surfaces and within volumetric domains.

 

Transient contact, wear and crack modeling, and poroelasticity in composite shells
The mechanical contact functionality available in the Structural Mechanics Module and MEMS Module can now be used for simulating transient impact events. For users of the Structural Mechanics Module, contact analysis additionally features new functionality for analyzing mechanical wear with dynamic removal of material. Further news in the Structural Mechanics Module includes new tools for crack modeling, providing J-integral and stress intensity factor computations as well as crack propagation based on a phase-field method. Lower-dimensional elements can now be placed inside solids. Uses include the modeling of reinforcements for anchors, rebars, and wire meshes.

For fluid flow in porous structures, the pore pressure causes mechanical stresses and the volume changes may affect the flow in a strongly coupled fashion. In the Composite Materials Module, the functionality for analyzing such poroelastic effects has been expanded to include composite shells. Applications include the simulation of layered soil, paperboard, fiber-reinforced plastic, laminated plates, and sandwich panels.

The suite of nonlinear multiphysics material models in the MEMS Module now includes ferroelectric elasticity, which can be used for modeling nonlinear effects in piezoelectric materials such as hysteresis and polarization saturation. This functionality is also available by combining the AC/DC Module with either the Structural Mechanics Module or the Acoustics Module.

Nonlinear acoustics, mechanical ports, and improved room acoustics analysis
With the addition of nonlinear acoustics capabilities, users of the Acoustics Module can simulate high-intensity focused ultrasound for use in non-invasive therapeutic medical applications as well as ultrasound imaging. The new version also allows for analysis of sound distortion in mobile device loudspeakers that may be caused by nonlinear thermoviscous effects. New mechanical port conditions, available in the Structural Mechanics Module, Acoustics Module, and MEMS Module, make it easier to analyze vibration paths and mechanical feedback in applications having propagation of ultrasonic elastic waves, such as ultrasonic sensing and nondestructive evaluation.

Engineers working with improving the sound quality of rooms and concert halls will appreciate the new room acoustics metrics available in the Acoustics Module, including reverberation time, definition, and clarity based on ray acoustics simulations. In addition, the new version provides faster impulse response for ray acoustics. A new boundary element method formulation enables analyses of an order of magnitude larger acoustic volumes with applications within, for example, sonar research and development.

Shallow water equations and directional surface properties for heat radiation
Researchers and engineers working with hydrological applications will benefit from the new option for simulating the shallow water equations now available in the CFD Module. The new functionality solves for water depth and momentum with an option to use a digital elevation map (DEM) to specify the seafloor topography. In all add-on products with support for porous media flow, new centralized handling of porous media properties gives users a much better user experience for multiphysics simulations of porous media. The Particle Tracing Module has new functionality for droplet evaporation, which is important for understanding the spread of contagions as well as a range of industrial processes. In the Heat Transfer Module, new functionality for surface-to-surface radiation enables defining surface properties that are sensitive to the direction of heat radiation. Applications include radiation simulations involving surfaces that have a texture or pattern that is reflecting and absorbing heat radiation differently in different directions; for example, the passive cooling of solar panels. A new modeling tool for phase change interfaces makes it possible to simulate freeze-drying processes.

Material Library for corrosion and automatic reaction balancing
The Corrosion Module now includes a material library with more than 270 instances of polarization data used to predict where there is risk for corrosion or hydrogen embrittlement due to hydrogen evolution in a structure. The Chemical Reaction Engineering Module features a new tool for automatic reaction balancing with stoichiometric coefficient calculations as well as three predefined thermodynamic systems. The predefined systems have a wide range of applications including dry air, moist air, and water-steam mixtures. In the Chemical Reaction Engineering Module, a new reactive pellet bed modeling tool enables multiscale modeling of pellet beds with macroscale mass transport in pores and microscale transport in spherical pellets. The new reactive pellet bed functionality supports a variety of diffusion models and arbitrary reaction kinetics with applications in, for example, catalytic converters in auto exhausts used to break down polluting gases such as nitrogen oxides (NOx).

Highlights in Version 5.6
• General updates
o Clip plane, box, sphere, and cylinder for easier selection inside complex CAD models
o Solution time decreased by 30% or more for many types of simulations
o Improved cluster performance and scalability
o New IPOPT optimization solver
o Templates for standardized application layouts for desktops, tablets, and smartphones
o Control knob form objects
o Realistic material rendering of plastics, metals, and organic materials
o Partial transparency in visualizations
• New products
o Fuel Cell & Electrolyzer Module for accurate simulation of hydrogen fuel cells and water electrolyzers
o Polymer Flow Module for analyzing non-Newtonian fluids
o LiveLink for Simulink for co-simulation of COMSOL Multiphysics and Simulink
o Liquid & Gas Properties Module for realistic fluid and fluid mixture properties
• Electromagnetics
o Parasitic inductance computations with L-matrix extraction
o Material models for laminated iron cores used in motors and transformers
o Ferroelectric material model for electrostatics
o 322 magnetic materials from Bomatec
o Coupled RF, thermal, and stress analysis tutorial for 5G applications
o Faster ray tracing, scattering in domains and from surfaces for ray optics
• Structural mechanics
o Mechanical contact: transient contact and wear modeling
o Crack modeling with J-integral and stress intensity factor computations and phase-field-based damage simulation
o Poroelasticity in composite shells
o Embedded reinforcements for anchors, rebars, and wire meshes
o Automatic generation of joints for multibody dynamics
o Rigid body contact
o Active magnetic bearings for rotordynamics
o Ferroelectric elasticity including nonlinear piezoelectricity with hysteresis and polarization saturation
• Acoustics
o Nonlinear acoustics for high-intensity ultrasound
o Sound distortion in mobile device loudspeakers due to nonlinear thermoviscous effects
o Mechanical port conditions for analyzing vibration paths and mechanical feedback
o New boundary element method (BEM) formulation for large scattering volumes including sonar applications
o Room acoustics metrics including reverberation time, definition, and clarity using ray acoustics
o Faster impulse response for ray acoustics
o Waveform Audio File (.wav) export
• Fluid & heat
o Shallow water equations interface
o Faster and more memory-efficient CFD solving
o Droplet evaporation for particle tracing
o Directional surface properties for heat radiation
o Phase change interfaces
• Chemical & electrochemical
o Material library for corrosion
o Realistic fluid models for dry air, moist air, and steam
o Automatic reaction balancing
o Reactive pellet beds for concentrated solutions
• CAD Import Module, Design Module, and LiveLink products for CAD
o Easier detection of gaps and overlaps in assemblies
o More robust solid operations for imported CAD models and CAD assemblies
o Measuring dimensions and automatic parameter creation for the constraints and dimensions functionality
o Faster and more robust ECAD import

COMSOL
www.comsol.com

COMSOL, a leading provider of software solutions for multiphysics modeling, simulation, and application design and deployment, announces the latest version of its COMSOL Multiphysics software. In version 5.5, the Design Module provides an entirely new sketching tool for easier creation and more versatile parametric control of geometry models. New and updated solvers speed up a range of simulations. Two new add-on products, the Porous Media Flow Module and the Metal Processing Module, further expand the product suite’s multiphysics modeling power.

Parametric sketching with dimensions
The Design Module provides a new sketching tool that makes it easy to assign dimensions and constraints to planar drawings for 2D models and 3D work planes. “We have carefully integrated the new dimensions and constraints tool in the Model Builder so that it becomes a natural part of the COMSOL Multiphysics workflow,” said Daniel Bertilsson, technology manager for mathematics and computer science at COMSOL. “The new tools for dimensions and constraints can be used together with model parameters in COMSOL Multiphysics to drive the simulation, whether for a single run, parametric sweep, or parametric optimization.”

Parametric optimization of fluid flow in a microvalve using the new sketching tool with dimensions and constraints capabilities available in the Design Module.

New solver technology for Acoustics Simulations
Ultrasound technology is becoming increasingly important in a range of applications spanning from process engineering and nondestructive testing to consumer electronics. New functionality based on the time-explicit discontinuous Galerkin method enables efficient multicore computations of ultrasound propagation in solids and fluids, including realistic materials featuring damping and anisotropy. The method also has low-frequency applications, such as in seismology. The included multiphysics capabilities can seamlessly combine linear elastic wave propagation in a solid and its transition to a fluid as an acoustic pressure wave, and back again. The new elastic wave functionality is available for users of the Structural Mechanics Module, MEMS Module, and Acoustics Module. The fluid-structure acoustics coupling is available in the Acoustics Module.

 

Sound pressure field in a car interior solved with the finite element method at 7 kHz using a specialized solver for wave propagation analysis.

For frequency-domain simulations, a specialized solver for wave propagation analysis makes it possible to handle higher frequencies (shorter wavelengths) using the finite element method. The new solver can be used to analyze enclosed structures such as that of a car cabin interior as well as other acoustics simulations.

Introducing the Metal Processing Module
The new Metal Processing Module makes metal phase transformation analysis accessible within the COMSOL Multiphysics environment for applications within welding, heat treatment, and metal additive manufacturing. “The Metal Processing Module makes it possible to predict deformations, stresses, and strains resulting from wanted or unwanted heat-driven phase changes in metals,” said Mats Danielsson, technical product manager at COMSOL. “The module can be combined with any of the other COMSOL products for virtually any kind of multiphysics analysis that includes metal phase change. We envision users combining this with, for example, the Heat Transfer Module for the influence of heat radiation, the Ac/dc Module for induction hardening, and the Nonlinear Structural Materials Module for highly predictive analysis of material behavior.”

 

Residual stresses in a spur gear after quenching, calculated using the Metal Processing Module.

Introducing the Porous Media Flow Module

The Porous Media Flow Module gives users within, for example, food, pharmaceutical, and biomedical industries a wide range of transport analysis capabilities for porous media. The new add-on product includes functionality for single- and multiphase flow in porous media, drying, and transport in fractures. The flow models cover linear and nonlinear flow in saturated and variably saturated media with special options for slow and fast porous media flows. The multiphysics simulation capabilities are extensive, with functionality that includes options for calculating effective thermal properties for multicomponent systems; poroelasticity; and transport of chemical species in solid, liquid, and gas phases.

Simulation of a packed bed latent heat storage tank, using the Porous Media Flow Module.

Simplified Shape and Topology Optimization with the Optimization Module
Users working with mechanical, acoustics, electromagnetics, heat, fluid, and chemical analysis have been able to perform shape and topology optimization in COMSOL Multiphysics for many years. The Optimization Module now offers simplified setup of shape optimization with new built-in features such as moving boundaries parameterized by polynomials and built-in support for shell thickness optimization. A new smoothing operation for topology optimization ensures higher-quality geometry outputs that can be used for additional analysis and additive manufacturing. COMSOL Multiphysics now has general support for import and export of the additive manufacturing formats PLY and 3MF, in addition to the STL format that is already available.

Shape optimization of a sheet metal bracket using the Optimization Module. The structure is subjected to a bending load resulting in ridges in the optimal design.

Nonlinear Shell Analysis, Pipe Mechanics, and Random Vibration Analysis
A wide range of nonlinear analysis options are now available for shells and composite shells, including plasticity, creep, viscoplasticity, viscoelasticity, hyperelasticity, and mechanical contact. The mechanical contact modeling functionality has been extended to support any combination of solids and shells, including solid-shell, solid-composite shell, and membrane-shell. Depending on the type of analysis, these improvements will be available to users of the Structural Mechanics Module, Nonlinear Structural Materials Module, and Composite Materials Module.

For users of the Structural Mechanics Module, a new user interface for pipe mechanics provides functionality to perform stress analysis of pipe systems. The new functionality can handle a variety of pipe cross sections and can include effects from external loads, internal pressure, axial drag forces, and temperature gradients through the pipe wall.

Users of the Structural Mechanics Module can now perform random vibration analysis to study the response to loads that are represented by their power spectral density (PSD).

This allows users to include loads that are random in nature, such as turbulent wind gusts or road-induced vibrations on a vehicle. The loads can be fully correlated, uncorrelated, or have a specific user-given correlation.

The Multibody Dynamics Module provides new functionality for analyzing rigid and elastic chain drives with automatic generation of the large number of links and joints needed for modeling chain drives.

 

Elastic chain drive analysis in the Multibody Dynamics Module. Colors and arrows show the velocity and velocity direction, respectively, in the chain and sprockets.

Compressible Euler Flow and Nonisothermal Large Eddy Simulations
Users of the CFD Module will get new interfaces for compressible Euler flow and nonisothermal large eddy simulations (LES). In addition, the flow interfaces for rotating machinery now support the level set and phase field methods as well as Euler–Euler and bubbly flow. The Heat Transfer Module comes with a new interface for lumped thermal systems, an equivalent circuit modeling approach for heat transfer simulations. Radiation in semitransparent (participating) media now supports multiple spectral bands, and a new open boundary formulation for convective flow reduces solution time by 30%.

Multiscale Wave and Ray Optics, Piezoelectric Shells, and PCB Ports
The Ray Optics Module can now be combined with the RF Module or Wave Optics Module for simultaneous full-wave and ray tracing simulations. This enables multiscale modeling, such as analyzing a waveguide beaming into a large room, where using a full-wave simulation would be computationally prohibitive. Combining the AC/DC Module and the Composite Materials Module, users can now analyze layered materials with both dielectric and piezoelectric layers in thin structures. In the RF Module, a set of new ports for vias and transmission lines makes setup much quicker and gives more control to the user for modeling of printed circuit boards.

Efficient Distribution of Standalone Applications
COMSOL Compiler enables you to create standalone applications based on COMSOL Multiphysics models with specialized user interfaces that have been built with the Application Builder. Compiled applications require only COMSOL Runtime — no COMSOL Multiphysics or COMSOL Server license is required. “Since the release of COMSOL Compiler last fall, we have seen great response from our Application Builder users with this new possibility of distributing their applications in standalone form,” said Daniel Ericsson, application product manager at COMSOL. The latest version of COMSOL Compiler has a new compile option for generating minimum-sized files for easier distribution. When the user launches an application for the first time, where the new compile option has been used, COMSOL Runtime is downloaded and installed, if needed, from COMSOL’s website. Only one instance of COMSOL Runtime is needed for applications using the same COMSOL version. COMSOL Runtime has a size of about 350 MB and an application file can be as small as a few MB.

The COMSOL Runtime installer for standalone applications created with the Application Builder and compiled with COMSOL Compiler.

Highlights in Version 5.5:

–New sketching tool with dimensions and constraints

–Fast linear elastic wave simulations

–New Metal Processing Module for welding, heat treatment, and metal additive manufacturing

–New Porous Media Flow Module for food, pharmaceutical, and biomedical industries

–Improved tools for shape and topology optimization for mechanical, acoustics, electromagnetics, heat, fluid, and chemical analysis

–Import and export of the 3D printing and additive manufacturing formats PLY and 3MF

–Editing tools for repair of STL, PLY, and 3MF files

–Structural analysis of nonlinear shells, pipe mechanics, random vibration, and chain drives

–Compressible Euler flow and nonisothermal large eddy simulation (LES)

–Rotating machinery with level set, phase field, Euler–Euler, and bubbly flow

–Lumped thermal system equivalent circuits

–Multiple spectral bands for radiation in participating media

–More efficient open boundary condition for convective heat transfer

–Use of thermodynamic database properties in any simulation type

–Combined full wave and ray optics simulations

–Piezoelectric and dielectric shells

–New PCB ports for vias and transmission lines

–Link images to Microsoft PowerPoint presentations

–Create your own add-ins for customizing the Model Builder workflow

–Minimal file size standalone applications with COMSOL Compiler

Availability
COMSOL Multiphysics, COMSOL Server, and COMSOL Compiler software products are supported on the following operating systems: Windows, Linux, and macOS. The Application Builder tool is supported in the Windows operating system.

To browse version 5.5 release highlights, visit: www.comsol.com/release/5.5

To download the latest version, visit: www.comsol.com/product-download

COMSOL