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COMSOL

Online COMSOL Conference 2020 is announced for October 7-8

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COMSOL-53-release-3-croppedCOMSOL has announced that the COMSOL Conference 2020 North America will be held on October 7–8, 2020 in a virtual format. The annual Conference, a meeting focusing on advancing skills and furthering collaboration among engineers and scientists in the area of multiphysics simulation, will for the first time run online. Participants, from the comfort of their own workstations, will be able to experience event highlights, including:

• Invited speakers from industry and academia sharing their experiences using multiphysics modeling and simulation apps
• COMSOL keynotes featuring news and software product announcements
• User presentations showcasing research achievements and innovative design projects
• Panel discussions on simulation apps, heat transfer modeling, and electromagnetics simulation
• Tech Cafés, interactive sessions where software developers and technical product managers take modeling questions directly form COMSOL users
• Minicourses offering learning opportunities for any level of simulation expertise, from introductory to advanced
• Virtual exhibition and poster session

“With recent travel restrictions and social distancing in mind, moving the conference online this year is clearly the best option,” said Lauren Sansone, marketing and events director at COMSOL Inc. “The COMSOL Conference North America will be easy to join online, without travel time or time away from home. We believe that the online conference will be attractive to many, as it will also be easier to fit with a busy schedule and other obligations. As we will miss out on in-person meetings, we will be placing extra emphasis on providing interactive, small group sessions, and one-on-one discussions. An added benefit is that we will also have access to COMSOL’s global pool of engineers, as it will be equally easy for them to join the conversations, from anywhere.”

For event details and registration, please visit: COMSOL Conference 2020 North America.

Abstract Submission for Posters and Papers
The Program Committee for the COMSOL Conference 2020 North America is now inviting abstract submissions for posters and papers on simulation work and applications from users of COMSOL Multiphysics to present at the conference.

The papers and posters accepted for presentation will later be shared with the community through the open-access Technical Papers and Presentations database Technical Papers and Presentations database, with a global reach.

The abstract submission deadlines for the COMSOL Conference 2020 North America are: Early Bird submission by July 17th; Final Abstract submission by August 21st. For information and guidelines for abstract submission, please visit: Call for Papers and Posters.

The conference presentations have a broad scope, and the call for papers includes topics such as:

• AC/DC electromagnetics
• Acoustics and vibrations
• Batteries, fuel cells, and electrochemical processes
• Bioscience and bioengineering
• Chemical reaction engineering
• Computational fluid dynamics
• Electromagnetic heating
• Geophysics and geomechanics
• Heat transfer and phase change
• MEMS and nanotechnology
• Metal Processing
• Microfluidics
• Multiphysics
• Optics, photonics, and semiconductors
• Optimization and inverse methods
• Particle tracing
• Piezoelectric devices
• Plasma physics
• Porous Media Flow
• RF and microwave engineering
• Simulation methods and teaching
• Structural mechanics and thermal stresses
• Transport phenomena

COMSOL
www.comsol.com

 

COMSOL launches Version 5.5 of COMSOL Multiphysics

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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

COMSOL News 2019 success stories: Simulation applications enable collaboration in developing new products

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COMSOL Inc. published its annual compilation of customer success stories featured in the latest edition of COMSOL News. This year’s issue features a variety of academic and commercial examples from engineers who push the limits of technology using COMSOL Multiphysics® for innovative modeling, simulation, and application design.

Collaboration is key when designing products that will change our future in unforeseeable ways. In this year’s issue of COMSOL News we find that everyone from students to professionals are working together. Both with each other and their customers to uncover the next development in their design work.

“Every year we feature some of our most innovative customers in COMSOL News. This year’s edition is no exception,” says Bernt Nilsson, Senior VP of Marketing, COMSOL Inc. “What stands out now is the expanding use of simulation, far beyond the R&D departments. Custom simulation applications are taking off. We’re thrilled to report on companies such as Viega who is bringing simulation to their sales team to design cooling and heating systems.”

COMSOL News 2019 features more than a dozen articles discussing a wide variety of projects using multiphysics modeling and simulation applications. Featured topics include: radiant heating and cooling, simulation applications, digital twins, hyperloop pod design, optical antenna design, battery design, and smart cities among others.

Availability
COMSOL News 2019 is available as an online magazine and can be viewed or downloaded in PDF format at: www.comsol.com/offers/comsol-news-2019.

COMSOL

COMSOL Multiphysics includes tools to support 5G, IoT design

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COMSOL announced the latest advances in its COMSOL Multiphysics software to support microwave and RF engineers working on 5G, IoT, automotive radars and satellite communications. With these tools, designers can model different PCB materials and study how they affect the performance of microwave and millimeter wave circuits. Several of the application examples to guide designers will be introduced at the International Microwave Symposium (IMS) 2019.

“We are particularly excited to demonstrate how to set up and run a simulation to design and evaluate a Grounded Coplanar Waveguide (GCPW) line,” said Jiyoun Munn, technical product manager of the RF Module at COMSOL. “Connectors and low loss materials are the key components across all electronic devices and systems. Their reliability is critical in circuits that transmit and receive information.”

The use of simulation to achieve low insertion loss and reliable circuit performance in a design, requires choosing accurate material properties such as relative dielectric constant and loss tangent, while also considering surface roughness effects in the computer model.
“As the frequency increases, maintaining the impedance become more complex, as small quirks arising from the geometry or selected materials can be magnified,” explains Bill Rosas, Cofounder of Signal Microwave. “Simulation allows us to ensure that these critical pieces of RF infrastructure are optimized for 5G communications.”

Designing components ready for 5G, IoT, automotive radars and satellite communications will require multiphysics modeling. Using COMSOL Multiphysics microwave and RF designers can couple electromagnetic simulations with heat transfer, structural mechanics, fluid flow, and other physical phenomena, allowing them to represent coupled physics effects as they would occur in the real world. That means being able to accurately investigate designs and fully benefit from the virtual prototyping capabilities multiphysics simulation offers.

COMSOL
www.comsol.com/rf-module

Simulation On-The-Go with COMSOL Client for Android

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COMSOL announces that COMSOL Client for Android is  available. Researchers, engineers, and students can perform simulation tasks from their Android devices, such as phones, tablets, and Chromebooks simply by connecting to the COMSOL Server software which runs the computations remotely.

COMSOL Client for Android expands on the capabilities of the Application Builder and COMSOL Server by enabling you to take your simulation applications on the road, without being limited by your device hardware. Providing field technicians or sales representatives with the power of COMSOL Multiphysics directly on their Android devices allows them to bring the R&D work on site or to the sales pitch.

“COMSOL Server allows users to run simulations through web browsers or desktop-installed clients,” explains Daniel Ericsson, Applications Product Manager, COMSOL. “COMSOL Client for Android expands on those capabilities by introducing a more seamless user experience on Android devices.”

“Using COMSOL Multiphysics and its Application Builder I can create models and build apps based on them. This allows other departments to test different configurations for their particular requirements and pick the best design,” comments Sam Parler, Research Director at Cornell Dubilier.

The Application Builder and COMSOL Server were developed to make multiphysics modeling more accessible to a wider audience. The Application Builder allows simulation specialists to create custom-made applications based on their multiphysics models. With COMSOL Server, organizations have been able to deploy industry-specific analysis tools in a streamlined and quick to implement format that can be scaled for global benefit. COMSOL Client for Android has made the convenience of running simulation applications as easy as ordering a rideshare.

Just like COMSOL Client for Windows, the simulations are run on remote servers, so you are not limited by your device hardware. Administrators continue to have full control over who can access and run the apps by using COMSOL Server. Android users will have the latest version of a simulation application each time they open the app.

COMSOL
play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.comsol.androidclient

CAD and Analysis: Integration and Beyond

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CAD and analysis programs need to work together. Regardless of how the geometry gets to the analysis program, the important thing is it gets there easily and can be quickly analyzed. That smooth transfer and analysis are how companies are cutting product lifecycle time and increasing profits.

Jean Thilmany, Senior Editor

You’ve created your CAD design, but you’re not done. You need to analyze the geometry to ensure air or fluid will flow through it correctly, that it can withstand a certain amount of pressure, that it’s structurally solid, or that it meets a host of other specifications.

The important thing is that the model needs to be analyzed within the analysis software.

CAD and analysis software work together much better than in the past, when CAD models had to be exported, then imported into the analysis software that then required engineers make even more changes before they could be read.

Today, CAD and analysis integration is key. But it’s not everything. The way modeling and analysis work together depends on the type of work you do and the physical forces you need to analyze. Sometimes geometry is imported directly from the CAD package. Sometimes geometry is created within the analysis software itself.

Because these needs vary, some products–like Comsol multiphysics analysis software–contain two engines for creating and managing geometry. Once the geometry exists within Comsol, the software can solve for more than one physical effect that acts on the geometry at the same time.
Comsol’s CAD import module–as the name implies–directly imports CAD geometry. Or, users can create their own geometry directly within the multiphysics software.

Regardless of how they get CAD into the analysis system, engineers and analysts will need to select the physical phenomena they want to apply. For this, they’ll need to mesh their designs. The mesh, which looks like a net over the model, creates nodes that the analysis software applies mathematical formulas to and studies.

“Some of our users analyze designs that are generated within a design department. That could be a product that’s close to being released,” says Lorant Olasz, Comsol’s technical product manager working with CAD. “Those geometry files are not drawn for simulation, so they come with some challenges for analysis.”

In those cases, the existing model will need to be meshed and, often, simplified, for analysis.

“But, in the end, we provide tools that allow you to work as if the geometry had been drawn directly within Comsol,” he adds. “You shouldn’t feel like, ‘I’m importing something and it’s not going to work!’ It just works,” Olasz says.

Electrical engineers can also analyze their printed circuit board designs in Comsol. The recently upgraded software now has the tools to generate geometric objects from the 2D layouts of ECAD files, group them into easy-to-use selections for simulation setup, and automatically take care of the geometric complexity inherent to ECAD formats before meshing.

All multiphysics analysis tools offered by Comsol can be run on the imported CAD model. Engineers need not worry they won’t be able to solve for, say, both structural and fluid-flow within the same, imported model, Olasz adds.

Both CAD import and the CAD design kernel allow users to import and then repair geometries, “and if you’re using the design kernel you have a few extra g operations like fillets or the option to thicken the surface of a solid,” he said.

The CAD Import Module supports the import of a variety of different file formats including the Parasolid and ACIS formats, and standard formats like STEP and IGES. Users import their files by saving them in any of these formats. The import module also allows users to import the native file formats of a number of CAD systems, such as Inventor, Creo Parametric, and SolidWorks. The optional file import for Catia V5 provides support for importing the native file format for this system.

Sometimes, for various reasons, engineers will choose to make preliminary, or even final designs directly within the analysis tool, he says.

At the beginning of the design process, for instance, engineers sometimes quickly create a model directly within their analysis software, which they use to test and analyze the feasibility of several ideas and variations. This makes it easy to find the geometry needed to meet fluid-flow and other specifications before designers commit to modeling the part in-depth within a CAD package, Olasz says.

“If you don’t need all the details, sometimes it’s faster to quickly draw something in your analysis package rather than try to simplify a complex assembly and take out the components not needed before you analyze it,” he says. “It really depends on the workflow you’re in.”

Designing directly within the analysis tool is often done if the piece will never be created in real life. The geometry still needs to be analyzed for other purposes.

A model eye

Take the case of the human eye. One company recently created an exact digital replica. They don’t intend to actually create a human eye. Though researchers are experimenting with 3D printed organs, they haven’t yet moved to experimenting with the eye. Instead, the model is used to study the human eye with the intent to change it with laser treatment. Or, as many middle-aged humans like to think, to perfect it.

Engineers at the company, Kejako, in Switzerland, created and imported 3D geometries pertaining to the human eye. Once the geometry was in Comsol software, they worked on that model some more. They were studying how laser treatment might work for aging eyes.

Engineers at Kejako in Switzerland created and imported 3D geometries pertaining to the human eye to study how laser treatments might work for aging eyes.

Let’s face it, almost everyone will need reading glasses or bifocals or specialized contact lenses as they age thanks to presbyopia. There is an operation that can decrease dependency on reading glasses and like, but as with all surgeries, it’s invasive and comes with risk.

Presbyopia is very common in middle age and older adults as it’s due the loss of elasticity in the lens of the eye that comes with aging, according to the National Eye Institute, part of the National Institute of Health. In 2015, 1.8 billion people around with world had presbyopia, according to researchers publishing in the journal Ophthalmology in 2015.

Presbyopia is a common eye condition due to the loss of elasticity in the lens of the eye that comes with aging. In 2015, 1.8 billion people around with world had presbyopia, according to researchers publishing in the journal Ophthalmology in 2015. Kejako hopes to develop a procedure that helps people with this condition.

Younger people who still have soft and flexible lenses within their eyes, can adjust their eyes easily to focus on close and distant objects. That’s why they don’t have to hold their restaurant menus at arm’s length to read them.

David Enfrun cites research that finds presbyopia will affect 2.3 billion people across the globe in 2020. He theorizes, probably correctly, that quite a few of them will resist wearing reading glasses or bifocals because they think the look will immediately age them, he says.

Enfrun is Kejako’s chief executive officer. His company is at work on a method to fend off the need for reading glasses and do away with the need for the invasive surgery that can correct presbyopia.

To that end, two years ago engineers at the company built a 3D model of the human eye that they use to determine how the eye changes over time.

“We built a full-eye multiphysics 3D model with consideration for mechanics, fluidics and optics,” Enfrun said. “We have imbedded in our multiphysics model everything necessary to simulate visual accommodation, explain the root causes of the occurrence of presbyopia, and to test any potential solution,” Enfrun says.

Engineers at Kejako built a full-eye multiphysics 3D model with consideration for mechanics, fluidics and optics. With the help of the model, researchers and engineers were able to brainstorm a list of potential solutions to presbyopia and model the way those solutions would affect the human eye.

Computational modeling enables the company to validate their concept before it goes to clinical trial, he adds.

With the help of the model, researchers and engineers were able to brainstorm a list of potential solutions to presbyopia and model the way those solutions would affect the human eye, Enfrun says.

The company is now moving forward with a concept of what it calls phakorestoration, which is a series of laser eye surgeries. They begin when a patient first develops presbyopia and continues until the patient develops cataracts. Kejako plans to soon bring phakorestoration to market.

To create the accurate 3D model of the eye that led to the creation of phakorestoration, several physics phenomena were considered as were the eye’s material properties, said Aurlien Maurer, research and development engineer at Kejako, who lead the project. Always acting within the eye are many different types of physics, such as the fluidics of the aqueous human; optical behavior of the lens and cornea material; and refractive index, which involves modeling the muscle ligaments as they deform the lens.

“We wanted to model the entire eye and adapt its properties to look at different outcomes,” Maurer says.

The Kejako researchers used geometries from statistical measurements and optical coherence tomography imaging techniques, which they then translated into a 3D geometry. Then they imported that information into Comsol. When the geometry was within the analysis software they modeled the mechanical elements of the eye, including the complex muscle ligaments that pull the lens into shape, and the viscoelastic properties of the vitreous fluid that fill the eye.

Once the Kejako tool is released, clinicians will be able to use the standard OCT imaging to image a patient’s eye. They’ll then send that information to Kejako, where a team can create a personalized 3D parametric full-eye model of the individual’s eye. The model is then further optimized and customized and a phakorestoraction procedure particular to the patient is created.

The procedure tells doctors how to perform the laser surgery on that particular eye and can detail when it will likely need to be done next, after the patient’s lens changes and needs further accommodation.

Comsol
www.comsol.com

COMSOL Learning Center available to all engineers

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COMSOL announces the COMSOL Learning Center is now available to all engineers.

“This collection of instructional videos serves as a one-stop shop to learn how to use the software,” comments Amelia Halliday, Product Content Engineer, COMSOL. “The COMSOL Learning Center will provide COMSOL users with a breadth and depth of learning that fully equips and enables them to take on any simulation situation.”

There are 30+ self-service, self-paced tutorials consisting of videos and additional resources such as exercise model files and blog posts for an interactive and hands-on learning experience. The contents are based on the fundamental steps in the modeling and simulation workflow, including building a geometry, adding physics, solving, and postprocessing results.

“The COMSOL Learning Center is available to any engineer that is interested in adopting multiphysics modeling,” adds Andrew Griesmer, Product Content Manager, COMSOL. “We want to make sure our customers get the most out of COMSOL Multiphysics, and this online resource delivers on that by providing a guided learning expericence to all types of users, at their own pace, anytime and anywhere.”

COMSOL
www.comsol.com/learning-center

Simulation apps provide graduates with a competitive advantage

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Engineering and science educators are aware that prospective employers are seeking graduates with skills using product design and simulation software. To address this need, one professor at the University of Hartford has pioneered the use of simulation apps by undergraduate students in the mechanical engineering program. The apps provide students with easy-to-use specialized user interfaces to run realistic simulations and visualize results without any previous training. This inquiry-based learning method enables deeper understanding of the physics and theory. Students can then easily progress to learn more about the underlying model and even build their own simulation apps in the Application Builder that is available in the COMSOL Multiphysics software.

Simulation app built by undergraduate students Iliana Albion-Poles and Jeffrey Severino. Their work is supported by the Connecticut Space Grant for Faculty Research. The app predicts the appearance of tones in a dual stream 4-strut nozzle for jet engines.

Working with simulation apps helps students to create a narrative describing the boundary conditions and setup used in the model, as well as arrange visual data, charts, graphs, and equations. “Our students tell us that the use of simulation software has enhanced their learning and helped them to easily visualize difficult theoretical concepts without exposing them to the underlying complexity,” said Ivana Milanovic professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Hartford.

Simulation apps serve as an easy entry point into numerical analysis. “Once students are familiar enough the concepts and the modeling techniques, they can eventually create their own apps using the Application Builder to further expand their knowledge and the reach of their collective analysis capabilities,” concludes Milanovic.

COMSOL
www.comsol.com/conference/boston

Simulation experts across industries to share how Multiphysics transformed their work at the COMSOL Conference 2018 Boston

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COMSOL, Inc. is pleased to announce this year’s keynote speakers at the COMSOL Conference 2018. The event, held in seven major cities, arrives in Boston on October 3-5 and features the following experts in multiphysics modeling and simulation apps:
– Freddy Hansen, Abbott Laboratories, medical device industry
– Justin McKennon, NTS Lightning Technologies, lighting protection systems for clean energy
– Ivana Milanovic, University of Hartford, simulation apps in undergraduate courses
– Eric Gebhard, Signal Microwave, high-frequency interconnects for 5G
– Nicholas Goldring, Radiasoft, simulation apps for next-generation synchrotron light sources

More details about the keynote talks can be found at: www.comsol.com/conference/keynotes/boston

Boston Conference Highlights
The COMSOL Conference brings the simulation community together around the world to discuss and exchange best practices around the use of mathematical modeling and numerical simulation. The event features many parallel sessions on structural mechanics, acoustics, electromagnetics, fluid flow, heat transfer, and chemical reactions. Program highlights include:
– Presentations and keynotes on product design and research by the COMSOL community
– 40+ minicourses and workshops on multiphysics simulation
– Panel discussions covering topics such as acoustics, additive manufacturing, batteries, photonics, and power electronics
– Announcing the latest simulation technology

COMSOL
www.comsol.com/conference/boston

Simulate optical phenomena in laser and fiber ring gyroscopes

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Engineers developing technologies such as laser and fiber ring gyroscopes for civilian and military applications can now test new ideas and configurations in the virtual world using numerical simulation. The Ray Optics Module, an add-on product to the COMSOL Multiphysics software, supports the ability to accurately trace rays through a moving geometry.

To showcase this capability, COMSOL is excited to announce the addition of a Sagnac Interferometer example model, complete with documentation and solution, to the Application Galleries. The new example provides simulation specialists with a working application of the Sagnac effect, the fundamental operating principle of ring laser gyroscopes, and will help those working with attitude detection to get a better understanding of the sensitivity and accuracy of such complex inertial navigation systems.

Visualization of counterpropagating light rays in a counterclockwise rotating Sagnac interferometer.

“We are very excited to share the Sagnac Interferometer model with the simulation community,” says Christopher Boucher, Technical Product Manager, COMSOL, Inc. “Just specify the angular velocity, and then you can accurately trace rays through the interferometer as it rotates, even though the two phenomena happen over vastly different time scales.

This is a real game changer for those working in the aerospace and defense industries. To our knowledge no other commercial software solution is able to execute this.” The movement in the example model is simple rotation, but the same capability could be applied to combinations of translation and rotation. Multiphysics models can also be built coupling ray tracing with structural deformation, including thermal stress.

COMSOL
www.comsol.com