The version 3.4 release brings a number of new features, improvements, and new models to COMSOL Multiphysics and its add-on products.
COMSOL Multiphysics – General improvements
- Expanded support for shared-memory parallelism: meshing, assembly, preconditioners, multigrid, sparse matrix-matrix product
- Built-in segregated solver
- Improved Galerkin least-squares (GLS) method for streamline diffusion
- Support for non-ideal pointwise constraints
- Improved internal solid modeling kernel
- Free quad meshing in 2D and on 3D faces
- Boundary layer meshing
- Copying of meshes from one boundary to another
- Boundary distance variables
- Additional units
- Improved and reorganized boundary conditions for fluid-flow modeling
- New wave and grayprint colormaps
- Tools for computing volume, area, center of gravity, moment of inertia, etc.
- Added support for MATLAB versions 7.4 (2007a) and 7.5 (2007b)
- New model:
- Solution of the two-term Boltzmann equation for an oxygen plasma
Material Library
- Improved search feature
- New materials
- Additional material properties
AC/DC Module
- Support for generalized constitutive relations: B(H) and H(B)
- Support for mixed AC/DC simulations (small-signal analysis)
- SPICE import directly from the COMSOL Multiphysics user interface
- Symmetry and periodic boundary condition improvements
- SOR gauge smoother for solving magnetostatics problems without explicit gauge fixing
- New models:
- Joule heating of a cable, clamp, and pole attached to a circuit of high-current cables and a battery
- The model as above, connected to an external circuit set up by the new SPICE-import feature
- Induced currents and resulting Lorentz forces in a magnetic brake
- Propulsion of a projectile through electromagnetic fields using the transient electric and induction currents formulation
- Analysis of an inductor and its core with nonlinear inductance using the new small-signal analysis feature
Acoustics Module
- Ultraweak variational formulation (UWVF) for pressure acoustics
- New application mode for piezoelectrical modeling
- Piezoelectric Material Properties database
- New models:
- Piezoelectric, structural, and acoustic model of a transducer using the new Piezo Axial Symmetry application mode
- Influence on the resonance frequency of an adsorbed gas in a SAW sensor using the new Piezo Plane Strain application mode
- Scattering of ultrasound waves from a cylinder using the new ultraweak variational formulation
CAD Import Module
- Ability to save repaired and defeatured CAD drawings in the Parasolid format
- Upgrade of the Parasolid engine
Chemical Engineering Module
- Bubbly Flow application mode for macroscopic modeling of mixtures of liquid and gas bubbles
- Mixer Model application mode for macroscopic modeling of mixtures of liquids and solid particles/liquid bubbles/droplets
- Improved and reorganized boundary conditions for fluid-flow modeling
- Boundary layer meshing
- Improved Galerkin least-squares (GLS) method for streamline diffusion
- Improved performance and robustness for fluid-flow modeling
- Predefined multiphysics entries for flow with variable density
- Predefined multiphysics entries for fluid-solid thermal interaction/conjugate heat transfer
- New models:
- Boiling of a liquid using the level set two-phase flow application mode
- Bubbly flow in a gas scrubber using the new bubbly flow application mode
- Capillary filling using the level set two-phase flow application mode
- Transport of a surge of analyte in a chromatography column
- Two-phase flow of a dense suspension using the new mixture model application mode
- Droplet breakup using the level set two-phase flow application mode
- Electrophoretic effects utilized for sample injection in a valve
- Sedimentation in a secondary clarifier for water treatment using the new mixture model application mode
- Fluid flow coupled to thermal and material balances with chemical reactions using the new application modes for flow with variable density
Earth Science Module
- Export from COMSOL Reaction Engineering Lab
- Improved and reorganized boundary conditions for fluid-flow modeling
- Improved Galerkin least-squares (GLS) method for streamline diffusion
- New model:
- Pesticide transport and reactions using the new Reaction Engineering Lab import feature
Heat Transfer Module
- Axisymmetric radiation
- Predefined multiphysics entries for flow with variable density
- Predefined multiphysics entries for fluid-solid thermal interaction/conjugate heat transfer
- Improved Galerkin least-squares (GLS) method for streamline diffusion
- New model:
- Axisymmetric analysis of an inductor using the new surface-to-surface radiation feature for axisymmetry
MEMS Module
- Improved piezoelectric application mode that is compatible with application modes for electrostatics and electric currents and where you can change the structural material model (piezo/isotropic/anisotropic/off) and electric part (on/off)
- Piezoelectric Material Properties database
- Convection and Diffusion application mode
- Contact usability improvements (automatic choice of penalty factors)
- Export from COMSOL Reaction Engineering Lab
- Film Damping application mode extended with slide-film damping boundary condition
- Improved and reorganized boundary conditions for fluid-flow modeling
- Improved Galerkin least-squares (GLS) method for streamline diffusion
- New models:
- Piezoresistive effects in a device incorporated in an elevator button
- Operation of a gyroscope influenced by slide-film damping
- Influence on the resonance frequency of an adsorbed gas in a SAW sensor using the new Piezo Plane Strain application mode
- Microreactor with reaction mechanism set up using the new Reaction Engineering Lab import feature
RF Module
- Fast far-field processing
- Lumped ports for EM waves
- Symmetry and periodic boundary condition improvements
- New models:
- Nonlinear sweep in an eigenvalue analysis with a normalization equation for the eigenvalue using the new periodic boundaries
- Calculation of microstrip impedance using two different terminations with the new lumped port conditions
- SAR analysis of the radiation emanating from a cellular phone
- Electric fields used to detect oil reservoirs beneath the sea
Structural Mechanics Module
- Follower forces
- Contact usability improvements (automatic choice of penalty factors)
- Improved piezoelectricity application mode that is compatible with application modes for electrostatics and electric currents and where you can change the structural material model (piezo/isotropic/anisotropic/off) and electric part (on/off)
- Piezoelectric Material Properties database
- Script-based tools for fatigue analysis as a postprocessing step for structural models supporting different cases of load histories and proportional/nonproportional loading
- New models:
- Stent deformation during deployment in an artery
- The new fatigue-analysis feature implemented in an analysis of a cylinder with a small perforation
- Piezoresistive effects in a device incorporated in an elevator button
- Clay under load using the Mohr-Columb yield condition
- The new fatigue analysis done on a shell structure with a square-shaped cutout
- Piezoelectric, structural, and acoustic model of a transducer using the new Piezo Axial Symmetry application mode
- Influence on the resonance frequency of an adsorbed gas in a SAW sensor using the new Piezo Plane Strain application mode
- A benchmark model of the new fatigue-analysis feature; analyzing a shaft with two different radii
- Contact and plastic deformation in a snap hook incorporated in the button of a car panel
- Contact and elasto-plastic analysis of a circular plate deformed by a spherical punch
- Frequency-response analysis and mechanical heating of a beam using the new mechanical-heating feature
- Structural and fatigue analysis of a lightweight wheel rim using the new features for fatigue analysis
Reaction Engineering Lab
- Parameter estimation for building models from experimental data
- Export of models to the Earth Science Module and MEMS Module
- New models:
- Thermal decomposition of methane in a catalytic bed
- Catalytic cracking of flashed distillate feedstock in a plug-flow reactor
- Study of the reaction mechanism for catalytic hydrogenation of aldehydes
- The new parameter estimation tool used on multiple sets of data for an enzyme catalyzed reaction
- Different variations of the new parameter-estimation feature on the analysis of kinetics data for CO absorption in water
- Degradation mechanism and transport of Aldicarb in soil
- Parameter estimation of a batch reactor process for peroxide decomposition
- Mechanism for a surface reaction and transport in a microreactor
