Latest Posts
3D Printed Cloaking Device in a Matter of Hours
It’s been almost a year since we declared 3D printing the hottest topic in manufacturing, and it hasn’t cooled off yet. If anything, 3D printing has seen a recent surge in popularity. By now you’ve heard a lot about the technology and what you can print with it, but did you know you could print invisibility cloaks this way, too?
Random Load Fatigue
In many applications, loads applied to structures are random in nature. The sampling results of the structural response will differ depending on the data collection time. Although the stress experienced is not always high, the repeated loading and unloading can lead to fatigue. The engineering challenges in these types of applications are defining the stress response to the random load history in the critical points, and predicting fatigue damage. This is simulated with the Cumulative Damage feature in the Fatigue […]
Using Curvilinear Coordinates
Curvilinear coordinates are a coordinate system where the coordinate lines may be curved. The new user interface for automatic computation of curvilinear coordinates is a very practical addition to version 4.3b for those working with anisotropic materials in free-form CAD designs. If you have a generic bent shape and try to apply the usual coordinate systems like Cartesian, cylindrical, or spherical, you are out of luck. Curvilinear coordinates are needed to smoothly follow the design, which typically has no mathematical […]
Modeling Electroanalysis: Cyclic Voltammetry
If you’re not an electrochemist, chances are you’ve never come across cyclic voltammetry. But look at any electrochemical journal, conference proceedings, or company website for manufacturers of electrochemical sensors. Somewhere near the front, you’ll see a distinctive “double-peaked” graph.
Mesh Refinement for Wave Problems
This week we are happy to have Kyle Koppenhoefer of AltaSim Technologies as a guest blogger. As COMSOL Certified Consultants, AltaSim can share valuable insights into using the software — today on the topic of meshing wave problems. As part of our efforts to assist COMSOL users in performing high-quality analysis, we recently used our bi-monthly email to remind users to include twelve degrees of freedom per wavelength when meshing wave problems. This article builds on our previous advice. Wave-type […]
Modeling Acoustic Damping Processes
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.
Double Pendulum Simulation Tutorial
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.
Equation-Based Modeling, a Custom Model of a Beating Heart
Equation-based modeling is one of the great strengths of COMSOL Multiphysics. The ability for you to easily access the equations describing the physics you are working with, and adding or manipulating them as you see fit, dramatically opens up the realm of possibilities that you can achieve through modeling and simulation. This is exemplified by the following custom model of a beating heart.
Unexpected Uses of Magnetic Levitation
Magnetic levitation, or maglev, involves suspending materials with magnetic fields. When gravity, acceleration, and other forces weigh down on an object, they can all be counteracted by magnetic pressure. Some uses that may appear to go completely against nature can actually be explained by fundamental science.
Molecular Flow Module: Simulate Rarefied Gas Flows in Vacuum Systems
Vacuum technology has many important applications, from semiconductor device and MEMS fabrication, to vacuum coatings for corrosion protection, optical films, and metallization. The new Molecular Flow Module provides vacuum engineers with previously unavailable tools for modeling gas flows within vacuum systems.
Multiphysics Simulations inside the Autodesk® Inventor® User Interface
Starting with the release of COMSOL Multiphysics® 4.3b you can work with multiphysics simulations right from the user interface of the Autodesk® Inventor® CAD system. Called the One Window interface, this functionality is available with LiveLink™ for Inventor®. The result of the work by our external interfaces and integrations development team, the One Window interface, is a completely new environment for simulations that are embedded in the Inventor® user interface. It contains the Model Builder, Settings, and all other views […]
Simulate Mechanical Systems with the Multibody Dynamics Module
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 […]