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COMSOL Upgrades Multiphysics Modeling System
Improved CAD interoperability and performance enhancements headline COMSOL Multiphysics Version 3.5
Beth Stackpole, Contributing Editor -- Design News, October 16, 2008
With a focus on improved interoperability with CAD/CAM/CAE applications and new capabilities for simulating circuit board design, COMSOL Inc. has launched the version 3.5 upgrade of its physics-based modeling system.
COMSOL Multiphysics 3.5 leverages a series of new solvers and useability enhancements, along with additional application modes, materials models and properties within each of its discipline-specific modules, to boost engineering and scientific productivity and make the multiphysics modeling tool more accessible to a broader audience, says Bernt Nilsson, COMSOL's senior vice president of marketing.
The first order of business is faster performance, leveraging new solvers to make version 3.5 more than three times faster for large flow models compared to the subsequent 3.4 version, according to COMSOL benchmark tests. Specifically, time-dependent structural mechanics, electromagnetic, acoustics and fluid-flow simulations are significantly faster with the new release, and the new time-dependent segregated solver embedded in the software will reduce memory usage by as much as 50 percent for common dynamic multiphysics simulations.
For better integration with popular CAD and scientific applications, COMSOL Multiphysics 3.5 offers a number of enhancements. The upgrade now supports the Parasolid file format from Siemens PLM Software, which streamlines the file import process by eliminating the process of converting objects to the COMSOL geometry, Nilsson says. In addition, a new Autodesk Inventor bidirectional interface maintains two-way associativity between Inventor and COMSOL so that any changes in a session in either application are propagated across both automatically. When used with the new CAD Import Module, the Inventor interface, along with the existing, comparable interface for SolidWorks, provides the ability to run geometric parametric sweeps in the COMSOL tool.
"If you don't have access to a robust and successful CAD import, it's difficult to import 3-D geometries and you need those geometries to get started," Nilsson says. COMSOL Multiphysics 3.5 eliminates much of the pre-processing conversion steps previously required in earlier versions by performing meshing directly on the Parasolid representation of the geometry, he says.
Each discipline-specific module in the COMSOL suite has also been enhanced, including a number of new capabilities that will facilitate the design of mechatronics systems. For example, the AC/DC Module now offers an ECAD interface for creating geometries of printed circuit board designs imported from ODB++ files and GDS files. Enhancements to the MEMS Module include a two-phase flow application mode along with new predefined multiphysics couplings that make it easier to set up electro-thermomechanical simulations. Finally, the new RF Module introduces new circuit ports for simulating the connection of a transmission line or an antenna and an external circuit, and ECAD import functions shorten the path between circuit board layout to 3-D geometry.
"COMSOL has ready-made user interfaces that make it easy to combine electromagnetics and structural mechanics simulation on one and the same model," Nilsson says. By setting up one system to solve both physics at the same time, companies are able to achieve reductions in the development cycle, shorten time-to-market and put together more realistic prototypes, he adds.
COMSOL Multiphsyics 3.5 is available now for $8,995.
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