COMSOL® Software Version 5.3 Brings Significant Performance Improvements
COMSOL Multiphysics® version 5.3 provides you with notable performance improvements as compared to earlier versions. You will experience speedup by a factor of up to ten in software responsiveness, as well as new and improved features for solving, meshing, and the physics-based add-on modules. Version 5.3 makes it more efficient to create models and deploy and run apps.
We have summarized the major news in COMSOL® software version 5.3 for you on this page. Browse the menu to the left for information about specific add-on products and more details on core functionality updates.
Ready to update COMSOL Multiphysics®? Click on the Download Version 5.3 button, which will take you to the Product Download page. It is easy to download the latest version of the COMSOL® software if you have a COMSOL Access account with your license number linked to it. Simply log in and follow the onscreen product download directions.

COMSOL Multiphysics® Software Performance Improvements
COMSOL Multiphysics® version 5.3 provides significant performance improvements as compared to version 5.2a and earlier versions. These are most noticeable when working with models made up of a variety of several thousand domains, boundaries, edges, and points.
The following table shows the most important of these performance improvements and the estimated speedup when handling larger models.
Functionality | Speedup* |
---|---|
Selections of domains, boundaries, edges, and points | 10x |
Virtual geometry operations (collapse faces) | 10x |
Swept meshing | 10x |
OpenGL® rendering | 10x |
CAD import | 5x |
COMSOL native geometry kernel | 5x |
Load/save of MPH-files | 2–10x |
General Updates
- Use the newly available Model method functionality in the Model Builder to automate and manipulate a large number of modeling tasks
- Perform customized actions when clicking on plots in Graphics form objects in apps
- Administrate cluster settings and usage log files in the COMSOL Server™ product
- Automatic generation of pyramid element transition layers between hex, prism, and tet meshes
- Automatically remove small geometric details to provide more robust meshes
- Simultaneously visualize different parameter values of different scales on the dual y-axes of 1D plots
- Visualize specific and important parts of 3D plots through filters based on selections
- Receive suggestions for direct and iterative solvers for choosing between fast or memory-conservative solutions
- Combine two time-dependent or parametric solutions into one for further use
- Generate adaptive meshes that are integrated with user-defined mesh sequences
Electromagnetics
- Model electrostatics applications with a new physics interface based on the boundary element method, which can also be combined with finite element method modeling
- Perform fast capacitance and general lumped matrix calculations with a new study type
- Review and manipulate a new permanent magnet motor tutorial model
- Utilize a new Part Library for standard RF and microwave components
- Apply automatic termination of rays in ray optics models by employing user-defined bounding boxes or intensity drops
- Import photometric data files for ray optics modeling
- Use the new Schrödinger Equation interface for quantum mechanical computations in 1D, 2D, and 3D
Structural Mechanics and Acoustics
- New Structural Mechanics Modeling Features in COMSOL® 5.3 Webinar July 6 [2 p.m. CEST] [2 p.m. EDT]
- New Acoustics Module Features in COMSOL® 5.3 Webinar May 23 [2 p.m. CEST] [2 p.m. EDT]
- Develop models involving self-equilibrating loads more easily with automatic constraints of rigid body motions
- Quickly assess the need for elastoplastic analyses on components through calculating safety factors in linear elastic analyses
- Enact stress linearization evaluations for pressure vessels
- Utilize the new Lemaitre-Chaboche viscoplastic material model
- Review and manipulate a new Rotor Bearing System Simulator app for rotordynamics
- Review and further use two new tutorial models coupling vibrations with noise in a gearbox and an induction motor
- Apply perfectly matched layers (PMLs) for absorbing outgoing waves in time-dependent pressure acoustics analyses
- Analyze transient thermoviscous acoustics applications
Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer
- New Heat Transfer Modeling Features in COMSOL® 5.3 Webinar May 10 [2 p.m. CEST] [2 p.m. EDT]
- New CFD Modeling Features in COMSOL® 5.3 Webinar June 14 [2 p.m. CEST] [2 p.m. EDT]
- Utilize the new highly automated and robust algebraic multigrid (AMG) solver for fluid flow
- Apply the newly available v2-f turbulence model for CFD simulations with strong turbulence anisotropy
- Make use of the automatic treatment of flow near walls to switch between different formulations for modeling turbulent flow dependent on mesh resolution
- Simulate wells with a new boundary condition that easily defines injection inflows and exploitation outflows
- Develop models involving heat and moisture transport in air with a new physics interface
- Use material property data from a library of building and refrigerant materials
- Include diffuse and direct solar radiation in surface-to-surface radiation models
- Employ multiple symmetry planes to simulate heat radiation in all directions simultaneously with reduced computational costs
Chemical
- Increase your modeling of reaction applications with the new multiphysics interfaces for reacting flow and transport in porous media, and fractures in impervious and porous media
- Extend modeling with the Nernst-Planck equations with the Poisson equation for charge conservation in a new interface
- Utilize a new electrophoretic transport interface to model acid-base equilibria in aqueous systems
- Consider Donnan equilibrium in updated interfaces for ion-exchange membranes and thin electrolyte layers
- Model current distribution on large, complex, and thin structures using the boundary element method
- Increase your modeling capabilities for corrosion by thin liquid layers using a new Current Distribution, Shell interface
Multipurpose and Interfacing
- New Particle Tracing Features in COMSOL® 5.3 Webinar July 20 [2 p.m. CEST] [2 p.m. EDT]
- Apply periodic conditions for particle tracing in periodic structures or geometries with sector symmetries
- Make use of the new rotating frames functionality for easier modeling of particles in rotating machinery
- Easily and quickly allow the release of particles at random initial positions
- Synchronize CAD assembly selections more efficiently with LiveLink™ for SOLIDWORKS® and LiveLink™ for Inventor®
- Allow for synchronization of curves and points for simulations that use these entities with LiveLink™ for AutoCAD®
- Investigate how to import and mesh a PCB geometry from an ODB++® archive file in a new tutorial
Autodesk, the Autodesk logo, AutoCAD, and Inventor are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. OpenGL is a trademark or registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries worldwide. SOLIDWORKS is a registered trademark of Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. Support for implementation of the ODB++ Format was provided by Mentor Graphics Corporation pursuant to the ODB++ Solutions Development Partnership General Terms and Conditions http://www.odb-sa.com/. ODB++ is a registered trademark of Mentor Graphics Corporation. COMSOL AB and its subsidiaries and products are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or supported by these trademark owners.