Applies to: CFD Module, Chemical Reaction Engineering Module Versions: All versions

Problem Description

How can I see which stabilization schemes are used by COMSOL Multiphysics in transport physics interfaces such as Single-Phase Flow and Transport of Diluted species?

Solution

Numerical solutions of transport equations can sometimes exhibit oscillations even when the exact solutions are smooth. These spurious oscillations are caused by numerical instabilities.

The general methods for all stabilization of flow equations are described in the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual, section Numerical Stabilization. For some special cases, for example Single-Phase Flow, there are more details in the respective module's User's Guide.

The default stabilization settings are optimized to work for most scenarios. If you want to change them, at the top of the model builder click Show More Options... and select the Stabilization check box. Then select the physics node in the model tree, for example Laminar Flow. On the Settings page, the Consistent Stabilization and Inconsistent Stabilization sections will appear.

Note that the exact implementation details of all the stabilization terms in the software are not directly available for inspection in the Weak Expressions field of the Equation View node in the Model Builder.