Latest Posts
Halloween Special: Cloaking Devices and Capes of Invisibility
What if this Halloween you could take your costume to the next level and turn yourself invisible? There are bounds of references to invisibility throughout fairy tales, folk lore, and pop culture. From capes and hats to cloaking devices, many fictional characters have been provided with a means for rendering themselves invisible. In the spirit of Halloween, let’s have a closer look at cloaking from a fictional and scientific stand-point.
Oil Companies Rely Heavily on Engineers
It’s no secret that there’s a lot of guesswork involved in oil production. Oil companies make “Big Money” decisions based on estimates – estimates with huge margins of error. What’s more, there is an incredible amount of risk involved, but with the potential for a large pay-off if all goes according to plan. The plan is based on “best guesses” and less than perfect data. Still, there are many big players in the oil industry that are doing very well […]
Poroelasticity in Sand
When you work with multiphysics all day you tend to notice physics phenomena everywhere you go. For me, one such moment was when I was walking on the beach this past summer. I noticed that the sand appears whiter around a person’s feet than elsewhere. You may have noticed this too, and like I, wondered “why?” This phenomenon can be explained by the theory of poroelasticity.
New Product that Helps Electrical and Electronics Engineers
As much as we would like to think that finite element analysis (FEA) is the be-all and end-all of simulations, it’s not true. There is also a camp of engineers out there that model integrated circuits and similar systems. These are based on different physics and equations than what FEA typically solves for. Yet, as is happening more and more in the world of virtual prototyping, the two types of simulations are converging. Now they need to integrate with each […]
A Creative Take on RFID Tags
These days, RFID tags are used in many applications. Ranging from packing slips to ID badges, RFID tags are embedded into many different objects by businesses everywhere. Once tagged, these can be tracked to improve functions such as inventory management, security, manufacturing processes, and more. You can also implant an RFID tag into animals, such as cattle or pets, so that they can be found in case of theft or loss, for instance. Wild animals that are found far from […]
Congratulations to the COMSOL Conference Boston 2012 Paper and Poster Winners
As the conference opened in Milan today, we would like to take a moment and congratulate the COMSOL Conference Boston 2012 paper and poster winners. Three “Best Paper”, two “Best Poster”, and one “Popular Choice” awards were handed out.
Why Should You Simulate Fatigue?
The Fatigue Module, an add-on to the Structural Mechanics Module and the COMSOL Multiphysics® software, can be used to perform structural fatigue life computations for both strain-based and stressed-based fatigue. In this blog post, we discuss some of the potential application areas and benefits of fatigue testing.
Extend Your Modeling Capacity with LiveLink™ for Excel®
Recently, Fanny blogged about spreadsheets and how they are used in engineering. She mentioned that they are great for collating material properties and other experimental results, and for then using these in COMSOL models. The simulation results from these models can in turn be compared to the original data, and help calibrate material properties and optimize the design. With the release of COMSOL Multiphysics 4.3a, COMSOL has now made it much easier to perform these tasks and extend your modeling […]