Acoustics | Posted on May 23rd, 2013 by Mads Herring Jensen
Mufflers are often located in exhaust systems or on heat, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, where their key functionality is to dampen the noise that is emitted from the system. A correct description of the acoustic damping (absorption and attenuation) processes in the muffler is important when designing and modeling these systems.
Mechanical | Posted on May 22nd, 2013 by Pawan Soami
Dynamic simulation of a double pendulum system can easily be performed using the Multibody Dynamics Module available in COMSOL Multiphysics. This module enables the mechanical simulations of assemblies of flexible and rigid bodies, often coupled with other phenomena such as from heat, electrical, and others.
Mechanical | Posted on May 10th, 2013 by Pawan Soami
The new Multibody Dynamics Module provides engineers with an advanced set of tools to design and optimize mechanical systems to reduce product development costs. This module enables simulation of an assembly of flexible and rigid bodies, along with physical phenomena like structural, heat, electrical, and others. One of the key capabilities included in this module is an easier and faster way of building connections between different bodies using various types of predefined Joints.
The objective of multibody analysis is to find critical areas of a system to perform more detailed component-level structural analysis. Multibody analysis also gives insight into the system dynamics, forces experienced by segments of the structure, and stresses generated in flexible components leading to failure due to large deformation or fatigue.
Read more on: Simulate Mechanical Systems with the Multibody Dynamics Module
Heat Transfer | Posted on May 1st, 2013 by Fanny Littmarck
Given the title of this blog post you might expect it to be about global warming, and I won’t blame you for it; greenhouse effect has become another popular term used when debating climate change. However, its original and literal meaning refers to a very different process, in particular when it comes to heat retention. Here we will describe the effect of heating up an actual greenhouse and suggest steps for optimizing its design.
Heat Transfer | Posted on April 22nd, 2013 by Fanny Littmarck
Chemical reaction fluids can be cooled using glass flanges. The reaction fluid is passed through the flange and the air surrounding the flange then serves as the coolant. Engineers looking to optimize the cooling performance of such flanges can look to simulation for help.
Mechanical | Posted on April 19th, 2013 by Andrew Griesmer
I will always remember a Geotechnical Engineering class I took during the pursuit of my Civil Engineering degree. It contained both the high and low points for that academic semester; the lab portion was a lot of fun, learning about (read: playing with) the different soils and clays existing in the state of Georgia. The final project, on the other hand, tasked us with designing a retaining wall to match certain specifications — a tough and lengthy assignment. A retaining wall is used to hold back soil from a region you don’t want it to move to, such as a lower level of the ground. If excavating close to a retaining wall, you’re subjecting it to additional forces it was not originally designed for, and it may require subsequent support. How much easier it could have been had we only known about geomechanics simulation software.
Mechanical | Posted on April 15th, 2013 by Vineet Dravid
The dynamic analysis of interconnected bodies or links is called a multibody analysis. These bodies are connected by joints that constrain their relative motion. The simplest element of a multibody system is a single particle, which can be considered using Newton’s laws of motion. Multibody Dynamics has a long and storied background.
Acoustics | Posted on April 12th, 2013 by Bethany Moatts
When given the choice, we’d all prefer our loudspeakers to project perfect sound; having a phone conversation with someone who sounds like a robot caught in a windstorm is less than ideal. The quality of the sound is, naturally, dependent on how well the speaker is designed, and COMSOL Multiphysics is the perfect tool to simulate and optimize loudspeaker designs because of its easy-to-use multiphysics nature. For a loudspeaker analysis to be accurate, you must be able to simulate from signal to sound with all the linking steps in between that determine how what you want to hear is transferred into what you actually will hear from a particular loudspeaker. Each step in the process will be interrelated, so it’s important to use this integrated multiphysics approach to capture each of these complex relationships. In the video at the bottom of this blog post, I will show you how our software can be used to perform a loudspeaker analysis.
Read more on: Calling All Audiophiles: Loudspeaker Analysis Video
Mechanical | Posted on April 9th, 2013 by Fanny Littmarck
We’ve all encountered hinges before; they are frequently used to connect different parts of mechanical assemblies in a way that allows them to move freely relative to one another, in a single degree of freedom. There are several different types of hinges, including everything from barrel hinges to friction hinges, with lots in between. Before incorporating a hinge into a mechanical assembly, you might want to get a sense of how it will hold up by performing a hinge analysis.
Mechanical | Posted on April 4th, 2013 by Andrew Griesmer
Back in January, I presented a video tutorial introducing the Structural Mechanics Module here on the blog. The video described the steps necessary to perform a static linear analysis on a bracket geometry. Now, to help you better understand the extra functionalities that exist within COMSOL Multiphysics and the Structural Mechanics Module, we are also creating additional tutorial videos of this bracket. The first two “mini-tutorials” to accompany the static linear analysis video focus on adding initial strain and thermal stress, and you can watch them here.
Read more on: Structural Mechanics Tutorials: Adding Initial Strain and Thermal Stress
