Architects cannot just be artists. A new building must not only be aesthetically pleasing but also structurally sound. In the design of modern buildings, great attention is paid to concepts such as environmental comfort and energy efficiency. With a range of physical problems to address in the transition from a building’s concept to a completed design, the 21st century architect may turn to multiphysics software.

Have you been interested in learning how to create fillets on 3D designs or how to generate shell approximations of imported geometric objects? The latest version of the COMSOL Multiphysics® software includes the new Design Module, which provides these and other tools for easier and more advanced geometric modeling. This optional add-on also includes interoperability tools for the import and export of CAD designs. Let’s take a look in more detail at what you can do with these new features.

The CAD Import Module, Design Module, and the LiveLink™ products for CAD include tools for repairing and preparing a geometry for simulation. They are powerful additions to the geometric modeling capabilities of the COMSOL Multiphysics® software. Let’s discuss how these tools work and when to apply them.

One of the main issues with high-power electrical devices is thermal management. Together with BLOCK Transformatoren-Elektronik GmbH, we created a model using COMSOL Multiphysics simulation software that encompasses all of the important details when modeling heating of high-power electrical devices. To do so, we had to utilize high performance computing (HPC) with hybrid modeling. Here, we will discuss how to approach this real-life task with the COMSOL software.

When working with both SolidWorks® and COMSOL Multiphysics® via LiveLink™ for SolidWorks®, you can choose to synchronize selections. Here’s why you should and how to do it.

No matter how much you refine the mesh at that corner in your geometry, the electromagnetic field that you are computing never seems to settle on a converged value. Is this a problem? If so, what can you do about it? Read on to find out.

Whenever you are modeling the geometry that you will use for your COMSOL Multiphysics analysis, either with the native CAD creations tools in the COMSOL software or using another CAD system, you may end up with a geometry that has more features than you really need. Here, we will look at a set of features called Virtual Operations that will let you quickly and easily simplify any CAD data in preparation for modeling and meshing.

In order to carry astronauts safely beyond earth’s atmosphere to where they can explore outer space, spacecraft must provide a very important chemical mixture: breathable air. Given the limits on space and weight for a manned shuttle, the systems flying aboard the craft must revitalize the air inside rather than carry the full amount needed for a mission. With this in mind, a team at NASA has developed an approach to atmosphere revitalization that relies on water adsorption.

The most streamlined way to find solutions for your design parameters is to use parameter optimization with the LiveLink™ products. This is helpful when you know what results you want, but you don’t know the optimal parameter values that lead to them.

When you are working with foreign CAD data, such as files in STEP or IGES file formats, you may think that you need to re-import a new CAD file and start your modeling over from scratch if you want to study a change in size or shape. But, in fact, you can modify the geometry that you’ve imported with some clever usage of the Deformed Geometry interface in COMSOL Multiphysics. Here, we will look at how this can be done.