New Features and models in COMSOL Multiphysics 3.4

The version 3.4 release brings a number of new features, improvements, and new models to COMSOL Multiphysics and its add-on products.

COMSOL Multiphysics – General improvements

• Expanded support for shared-memory parallelism: meshing, assembly, preconditioners, multigrid, sparse matrix-matrix product
• Built-in segregated solver
• Improved Galerkin least-squares (GLS) method for streamline diffusion
• Support for non-ideal pointwise constraints
• Improved internal solid modeling kernel
• Free quad meshing in 2D and on 3D faces
• Boundary layer meshing
• Copying of meshes from one boundary to another
• Boundary distance variables
• Additional units
• Improved and reorganized boundary conditions for fluid-flow modeling
• New wave and grayprint colormaps
• Tools for computing volume, area, center of gravity, moment of inertia, etc.
• Added support for MATLAB versions 7.4 (2007a) and 7.5 (2007b)
• New model:
  • Solution of the two-term Boltzmann equation for an oxygen plasma

Material Library

• Improved search feature
• New materials
• Additional material properties

AC/DC Module

• Support for generalized constitutive relations: B(H) and H(B)
• Support for mixed AC/DC simulations (small-signal analysis)
• SPICE import directly from the COMSOL Multiphysics user interface
• Symmetry and periodic boundary condition improvements
• SOR gauge smoother for solving magnetostatics problems without explicit gauge fixing
• New models:
  • Joule heating of a cable, clamp, and pole attached to a circuit of high-current cables and a battery
  • The model as above, connected to an external circuit set up by the new SPICE-import feature
  • Induced currents and resulting Lorentz forces in a magnetic brake
  • Propulsion of a projectile through electromagnetic fields using the transient electric and induction currents formulation
  • Analysis of an inductor and its core with nonlinear inductance using the new small-signal analysis feature

Acoustics Module

• Ultraweak variational formulation (UWVF) for pressure acoustics
• New application mode for piezoelectrical modeling
• Piezoelectric Material Properties database
• New models:
  • Piezoelectric, structural, and acoustic model of a transducer using the new Piezo Axial Symmetry application mode
  • Influence on the resonance frequency of an adsorbed gas in a SAW sensor using the new Piezo Plane Strain application mode
  • Scattering of ultrasound waves from a cylinder using the new ultraweak variational formulation

CAD Import Module

• Ability to save repaired and defeatured CAD drawings in the Parasolid format
• Upgrade of the Parasolid engine

Chemical Engineering Module

• Bubbly Flow application mode for macroscopic modeling of mixtures of liquid and gas bubbles
• Mixer Model application mode for macroscopic modeling of mixtures of liquids and solid particles/liquid bubbles/droplets
• Improved and reorganized boundary conditions for fluid-flow modeling
• Boundary layer meshing
• Improved Galerkin least-squares (GLS) method for streamline diffusion
• Improved performance and robustness for fluid-flow modeling
• Predefined multiphysics entries for flow with variable density
• Predefined multiphysics entries for fluid-solid thermal interaction/conjugate heat transfer
• New models:
  • Boiling of a liquid using the level set two-phase flow application mode
  • Bubbly flow in a gas scrubber using the new bubbly flow application mode
  • Capillary filling using the level set two-phase flow application mode
  • Transport of a surge of analyte in a chromatography column
  • Two-phase flow of a dense suspension using the new mixture model application mode
  • Droplet breakup using the level set two-phase flow application mode
  • Electrophoretic effects utilized for sample injection in a valve
  • Sedimentation in a secondary clarifier for water treatment using the new mixture model application mode
  • Fluid flow coupled to thermal and material balances with chemical reactions using the new application modes for flow with variable density

Earth Science Module

• Export from COMSOL Reaction Engineering Lab
• Improved and reorganized boundary conditions for fluid-flow modeling
• Improved Galerkin least-squares (GLS) method for streamline diffusion
• New model:
  • Pesticide transport and reactions using the new Reaction Engineering Lab import feature

Heat Transfer Module

• Axisymmetric radiation
• Predefined multiphysics entries for flow with variable density
• Predefined multiphysics entries for fluid-solid thermal interaction/conjugate heat transfer
• Improved Galerkin least-squares (GLS) method for streamline diffusion
• New model:
  • Axisymmetric analysis of an inductor using the new surface-to-surface radiation feature for axisymmetry

MEMS Module

• Improved piezoelectric application mode that is compatible with application modes for electrostatics and electric currents and where you can change the structural material model (piezo/isotropic/anisotropic/off) and electric part (on/off)
• Piezoelectric Material Properties database
• Convection and Diffusion application mode
• Contact usability improvements (automatic choice of penalty factors)
• Export from COMSOL Reaction Engineering Lab
• Film Damping application mode extended with slide-film damping boundary condition
• Improved and reorganized boundary conditions for fluid-flow modeling
• Improved Galerkin least-squares (GLS) method for streamline diffusion
• New models:
  • Piezoresistive effects in a device incorporated in an elevator button
  • Operation of a gyroscope influenced by slide-film damping
  • Influence on the resonance frequency of an adsorbed gas in a SAW sensor using the new Piezo Plane Strain application mode
  • Microreactor with reaction mechanism set up using the new Reaction Engineering Lab import feature

RF Module

• Fast far-field processing
• Lumped ports for EM waves
• Symmetry and periodic boundary condition improvements
• New models:
  • Nonlinear sweep in an eigenvalue analysis with a normalization equation for the eigenvalue using the new periodic boundaries
  • Calculation of microstrip impedance using two different terminations with the new lumped port conditions
  • SAR analysis of the radiation emanating from a cellular phone
  • Electric fields used to detect oil reservoirs beneath the sea

Structural Mechanics Module

• Follower forces
• Contact usability improvements (automatic choice of penalty factors)
• Improved piezoelectricity application mode that is compatible with application modes for electrostatics and electric currents and where you can change the structural material model (piezo/isotropic/anisotropic/off) and electric part (on/off)
• Piezoelectric Material Properties database
• Script-based tools for fatigue analysis as a postprocessing step for structural models supporting different cases of load histories and proportional/nonproportional loading
• New models:
  • Stent deformation during deployment in an artery
  • The new fatigue-analysis feature implemented in an analysis of a cylinder with a small perforation
  • Piezoresistive effects in a device incorporated in an elevator button
  • Clay under load using the Mohr-Columb yield condition
  • The new fatigue analysis done on a shell structure with a square-shaped cutout
  • Piezoelectric, structural, and acoustic model of a transducer using the new Piezo Axial Symmetry application mode
  • Influence on the resonance frequency of an adsorbed gas in a SAW sensor using the new Piezo Plane Strain application mode
  • A benchmark model of the new fatigue-analysis feature; analyzing a shaft with two different radii
  • Contact and plastic deformation in a snap hook incorporated in the button of a car panel
  • Contact and elasto-plastic analysis of a circular plate deformed by a spherical punch
  • Frequency-response analysis and mechanical heating of a beam using the new mechanical-heating feature
  • Structural and fatigue analysis of a lightweight wheel rim using the new features for fatigue analysis

Reaction Engineering Lab

• Parameter estimation for building models from experimental data
• Export of models to the Earth Science Module and MEMS Module
• New models:
  • Thermal decomposition of methane in a catalytic bed
  • Catalytic cracking of flashed distillate feedstock in a plug-flow reactor
  • Study of the reaction mechanism for catalytic hydrogenation of aldehydes
  • The new parameter estimation tool used on multiple sets of data for an enzyme catalyzed reaction
  • Different variations of the new parameter-estimation feature on the analysis of kinetics data for CO absorption in water
  • Degradation mechanism and transport of Aldicarb in soil
  • Parameter estimation of a batch reactor process for peroxide decomposition
  • Mechanism for a surface reaction and transport in a microreactor