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COMSOL Multiphysics® 5.3 Release Highlights

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.

Free Webinar: Introducing COMSOL Multiphysics® and COMSOL Server™ 5.3

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
*The actual speedup may be better or worse depending on the details of the model. Certain performance improvements were introduced in version 5.2a.

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.