Major News in COMSOL Multiphysics® Version 6.1

COMSOL Multiphysics® version 6.1 introduces new functionality for detached eddy simulation, thermal analysis of satellites, winding layouts for electric motors, and robust mechanical contact. A new interface enables the analysis of battery packs with several hundred cells. Simulation of acoustically driven flows is made possible by a new acoustic streaming interface. New mesh repair tools for the handling of misaligned models provide an alternative to traditional CAD repair and defeaturing. Direct modeling operations make it possible to perform parametric sweeps of imported CAD models and optimize them. New functionality for including direct shadows in visualizations provides enhanced depth perception.

We have summarized the major news in the COMSOL® software version 6.1 for you below. Browse the menu to the left for more details on core functionality and specific add-on products.

General Updates

  • Application Builder: resizable and detachable windows in apps
  • Model Manager: version control of reports and CAD assemblies
  • Optimization Module: topology optimization with manufacturing constraints for milling
  • Uncertainty Quantification Module: multidimensional interpolation and inverse UQ
  • Visualizations with direct shadows
  • Mesh repair for misaligned CAD models
  • Powerful new Find and Replace tool
  • Interface for Microsoft® Word

Electromagnetics

  • Electric circuit extraction
  • Tools for motor winding layouts and magnet arrays
  • Magnetohydrodynamics simulations, including a library of liquid metals
  • Electric discharge simulations
  • Efficient modeling of periodic structures for electromagnetic waves
  • Fluence rate calculations for ray optics
  • Combined inductively and capacitively coupled plasmas

Structural Mechanics

  • Faster and more robust contact for solids, shells, and membranes, including full support for self-contact
  • Nonlinear materials in thin layers for the analysis of gaskets and adhesive layers
  • Weld evaluation for joined structural shells
  • Numerical testing of material models
  • Analysis of cable or wire systems
  • Wear analysis for shells and membranes
  • Shear force and moment diagrams for beams
  • Modeling of pyroelectricity

Acoustics

  • Up to 40% faster solver for elastic–acoustic waves and more than 2 billion degrees of freedom
  • Acoustic streaming for acoustically driven fluid flow
  • Lumped boundary and port features for thermoviscous acoustics in microtransducers
  • Thermoviscous acoustic damping of MEMS devices
  • Explicit solvers for combining piezoelectricity, structural mechanics, acoustics, and fluid flow
  • Fracture boundary condition for elastic waves

Fluid & Heat

  • CFD with detached eddy simulation (DES)
  • Turbulent flow in porous media coupled with flow in open media
  • High Mach number reacting flow
  • Radiative loads on satellites in orbit
  • Easier coupling of shells and solids in heat transfer models

Chemical & Electrochemical

  • Dispersed multiphase flow with chemical species transport and reactions
  • Shrinking core feature for heterogeneous reactions in porous media
  • New Battery Pack interface for modeling battery packs with several hundred cells
  • Thermal analysis and thermal runaway in 3D models
  • Functionality for modeling impurities from sulfuric compounds, heavy hydrocarbons, and ammonia in fuel cells

CAD Import Module, Design Module, and LiveLink™ Products for CAD

  • Offset and transform faces operations for parameterizing and optimizing imported CAD models
  • Automatic simplification of imported ECAD layouts for faster meshing and solving
  • Support for the most recent versions of CAD file formats

Platform and Hardware Support

  • Linux® operating system support on ARMv8 processors
  • Performance improvements on Apple silicon (M-series) processors

Apple is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft is a trademark of the Microsoft group of companies.