Creating new physics interfaces that you can save and share, modifying the underlying equations of a model, and simulating a wider variety of devices and processes: These are just a few ways you can benefit from the equation-based modeling capabilities of the COMSOL Multiphysics® software.

In a lineup of online shopping results, jackets labeled as being made with GORE-TEX® product technology signal “high quality” to the consumer. The company behind this technology, W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., specializes in materials science for fabrics, medical products, and performance solutions. The companies that produce the end products rely on material that performs as expected. To accelerate their product development efforts, W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. uses simulation, apps, and the COMSOL Server™ product.

Today marks the release of a new version of the COMSOL® software, which includes core functionality updates and major updates to the add-on modules. Read on for a brief introduction to some of the significant updates to the COMSOL Multiphysics® and COMSOL Server™ platform products and add-on modules.

Within mass spectrometers, plasmas are often used to ionize a sample and an inert background gas. Before the ions produced in the plasma are sent into the mass filter, which determines the sample’s chemical composition, they must be focused into a beam with a suitably small radius. One way to focus ions is with an ion funnel. Focusing ions is a critical stage of the overall design, so it’s important to have a fundamental understanding of the funnel’s operating principles.

On a bright evening in 1669, Professor Erasmus Bartholinus looked through a piece of an Icelandic calcite crystal he had placed onto a bench. He observed when he covered text on the bench with the stone, it appeared as a double image. The observed optical phenomenon, called birefringence, involves a beam of light that splits into two parallel beams while emerging out of a crystal. Here, we demonstrate a modeling approach for this effect.

In Part 2 of our blog series on how to model irregular shapes in the COMSOL Multiphysics® software, we focus on how to create a surface of an irregular shape based on elevation data stored in various formats such as text, an image, or a DEM file. This approach is best suited for data where the height (or elevation) is a function of x- and y-coordinates.

The physics behind filling a water balloon seem simple at first glance, but involve a rather complex interplay of fluid flow and a nonlinear hyperelastic material. Fortunately, it is easy to set up and solve this type of model in the COMSOL Multiphysics® software. Let’s see how…

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…the future of data sharing? Satellites orbiting Earth have the potential to revolutionize how we collect and share information. Instead of wired or wireless data networks, satellites could form the basis of an Internet of Space (IoS) to connect even the most remote locations.

Measurements and units make our professional and personal lives orderly and systematic. Different unit systems have been used over time, but today there are two dominant systems: the metric and English unit systems. What happens when both unit systems are used for the same application? In this blog post, we will shed light on two historical disasters brought about by the use of different unit systems and highlight unique features of the COMSOL Multiphysics® software for handling different unit systems.

To fillet or not to fillet, that is the question (that can bedevil the multiphysics analyst). When building finite element models, sharp edges can lead to local singularities and fields that are nonconvergent with mesh refinement. Rounding off these sharp edges by adding a fillet avoids this singularity. As it turns out, in many multiphysics models, these sharp edges and the resultant singularities do not necessarily negatively affect the results. Let’s find out more.