Press Release

Editor contact:
Bernt Nilsson, VP of Marketing
phone: +46 8 412 95 00 fax: +46 8 412 95 10
e-mail: bernt@comsol.se

Reader inquiries:
Svante Littmarck, President; Magnus Ringh, VP of Sales
phone: 781-273-3322 fax: 781-273-6603
e-mail: info@comsol.com
company web site: www.comsol.com

Download the press release in Word format
White Paper on Chemical Engineering:
Chemical Engineering in the Automative Industry

April 12, 2001— COMSOL is proud to present FEMLAB^® 2.1. This version provides a new Chemical Engineering Module in addition to new features and functionalities. FEMLAB, a finite element package is a flexible tool for simulations of physical phenomena in science and technology in 1D, 2D, and 3D. FEMLAB was recently awarded the "Readers Choice Product of the Year 2000" Silver Medal by NASA Tech Briefs.

 

Cutting edge numeric solver of differential algebraic equations in FEMLAB 2.1

Professor Linda Petzold and Dr. Shengtai Li at the University of California Santa Barbara have implemented the state-of-the-art differential algebraic equation solver DASPK 2.0 in FEMLAB 2.1. The new solver adds a fast and reliable numerical method for the computation of problems where components of the solution vary on very different time scales, and it even lets you solve combined dynamic and stationary multiphysics problems. The new solver in FEMLAB 2.1 is available directly from the graphical user interface. Furthermore, DASPK 2.0 is fully compatible with MATLAB^® 6, thus offering cutting edge technology in the leading software environment for scientific computations.

"The DASPK 2.0 brings world class mathematics into FEMLAB for solving differential algebraic equations. It makes it possible to simultaneously model and solve stationary and dynamic problems. This method has substantially better performance than any other available algorithm. It is well suited for applications such as multiphysics, chemical reactions and electromagnetics," says Dr. Lars Langemyr, Vice President of Development at COMSOL.

 

Powerful post processing in the graphical user interface

Another important enhancement of FEMLAB 2.1 has been implemented in the graphical user interface. FEMLAB 2.1 now supports post processing of integrals over domains and boundaries, directly from the graphical user interface. Numerical integration is used in many situations, e.g., for the computation of fluid flow or mechanical forces. You will now have a set of predefined variables to integrate, or you can type your own integrating expressions.

Other features in FEMLAB 2.1 include associative geometries in the 3D solid modeler, and powerful visualization capabilities such as transparency, which lets you see through surfaces. Furthermore, the FlexLM license manager now makes it easy to run FEMLAB in a floating license network environment.

 

FEMLAB Chemical Engineering Module

A new software package for the modeling of fuel cells, reactors and much more

The fast development of computers and computer software has changed the daily life of the chemical engineer. In the past, the development of new processes in chemical engineering was heavily dominated by experimental studies. Today, more and more of the process development work is done in front of the computer, in combination with experimental verifications. This strategy has proved to accelerate the development work and decreased the costs for construction of prototypes and full-scale processes.

In chemical engineering, investigation and development work often involves the study of different phenomena. We can look at the performance of a reactor, which is, in most cases, governed by temperature and concentration distribution. The simulation of such a system involves the treatment of mass, heat and momentum balances coupled to chemical reactions. The FEMLAB Chemical Engineering Module allows the chemical engineer to freely couple these transport phenomena with arbitrary expressions for the reaction kinetics in a system.

FEMLAB Chemical Engineering contains ready-to-use predefined equations for momentum balances like the Navier-Stokes equations, Darcy's law and the Brinkman equations for porous media flow. In addition, it also contains predefined sets of equations for heat and balances, which can be easily coupled to the above mentioned momentum balances. It also includes a model library with examples from the fields of chemical reaction engineering, electrochemical engineering, fluid dynamics in reactors and unit operation equipment, heat balances in equipment for unit operations and much more.

The modeling work in it is done with the well-reputed graphical user interface typical for the winning FEMLAB package. In FEMLAB Chemical Engineering, the FEMLAB interface is adapted for the needs of the chemical engineer.

 

System requirements

FEMLAB 2.1 and FEMLAB Chemical Engineering Module runs under Windows 95/98/2000/ME, NT 4.0, Macintosh System 7.1 or later and versions are available for Solaris, Linux, AIX, HP-UX, COMPAQ Tru64 UNIX and IRIX. It also requires that MATLAB® 5.3.1 or 6.0 be installed (version 5.2.1 for the Macintosh). The recommended hardware configuration is 128M bytes of RAM for modeling in 2D, 256M bytes of RAM for modeling in 3D, and at least16-bit color graphics.

 

Price and availability

FEMLAB 2.1 and FEMLAB Chemical Engineering Module start shipping April 17, 2001. A single-user license of FEMLAB for Windows costs $3,995.00 and the Chemical Engineering Module costs $1,595.00. The packages are also available for Unix under a network license. Educational discounts are available.

 

About the company

COMSOL Inc is located at

1 New England Executive Park
Suite 350
Burlington, MA 01803
Tel: 781-273 3322
Fax: 781-273-6603
Web sites: www.comsol.com, www.femlab.com

COMSOL Inc is the US subsidiary of COMSOL AB, with headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. The privately held firm was initially founded in 1986 by Svante Littmarck and Farhad Saeidi as a software distributor specializing in products from The MathWorks Inc (Natick, MA). In 1995 the principles started writing and distributing specialized add-ons for MATLAB, chief among them the PDE Toolbox. Most recently the company introduced FEMLAB, a MATLAB-based tool for the graphical modeling of complex problems built around partial differential equations.

FEMLAB is a registered trademark of COMSOL AB. MATLAB is a registered trademark of The MathWorks Inc.

 

FEMLAB Backgrounder

FEMLAB is a modeling and analysis package for virtual prototyping of physical phenomena. FEMLAB can model virtually any physical phenomena an engineer or scientist can describe with partial differential equations (PDEs) including heat transfer, fluid flow, electromagnetics and structural mechanics. Specifically, FEMLAB supports the integration of problems from different fields—Multiphysics.

 

Easy-to-Use

FEMLAB makes its considerable computational power available to users through an easy-to-use graphical user interface that allows them to solve complex problems by describing these problems with drawings rather than entering many lines of involved equations. It can also import DXF drawing files from popular CAD software including AutoCAD^® and CATIA^®.

Making it even easier to develop applications, FEMLAB bundles a Model Library that shows ready-to-run examples for common situations in multiple application areas. Thus users aren't required to have in-depth knowledge of mathematics or numerical analysis. In fact, they can build many models by means of the physical quantities involved rather than by writing the equations that describe them. Examining these models is also an excellent way of learning how to exploit the full power of FEMLAB within the various application areas.

 

Open and Extensible

Users can extend FEMLAB's standard capabilities through simple script programming. At any point while a preconfigured modeling method is running, researchers can pause the process, evaluate its progress and methodology, and proceed either with the standard method or branch off into a new modeling approach. This combination of easy modeling, easy customization and quick improvisational ability make FEMLAB a tool useful for both nonstandard computations as well as for quick research into physics, models and parameters.

 

Solid Mathematical Foundation

The underlying mathematical structure upon which FEMLAB is based is a system of partial differential equations (PDEs), a mathematical description of some physical phenomena based on the laws of science. Anyone who is an expert in his or her field and knows how to set up simulations using PDEs can extend those systems by explicitly modeling in terms of these types of equations.

 

Compatibility

The software runs on top of MATLAB^®, the industry standard tool for technical computing developed by The MathWorks Inc (Natick, MA). This gives you the freedom to combine modeling, simulation, and analysis with a host of numerous applications in engineering and science.