Last week, users of COMSOL Multiphysics® presented innovative projects at the COMSOL Conference 2016 Boston. Topics ranged from the human body to acoustic black holes, and while it was hard to pick favorites, a few of the submissions stood out above the rest. Attendees voted for their favorite poster and our committee selected six of the best papers and posters. Curious about who won? Here’s a round-up of the top papers and posters from the COMSOL Conference 2016 Boston…

Mixers are used for different purposes in many modern industries. If you are looking for an efficient mixer design process, you need a simulation tool that enables you to mix and match different mixer elements. With the COMSOL Multiphysics® software, you can create a mixer geometry that fits your own needs. Today, we’ll discuss modeling a laminar mixing problem with a flat-bottom mixer and two turbulent mixing problems with dished-bottom mixers that utilize the k-epsilon and k-omega turbulence models.

In a previous blog post, we discussed integration methods in time and space, touching on how to compute antiderivatives using integration coupling operators. Today, we’ll expand on that idea and show you how to analyze spatial integrals over variable limits, whether they are prescribed explicitly or defined implicitly. The technique that we will describe can be helpful for analyzing results as well as for solving integral and integro-differential equations in the COMSOL Multiphysics® software.

Environmental demands for greater fuel efficiency and lower emissions have sparked an interest in finding an alternative to traditional spark- and compression-ignition engines. While homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engines offer a viable solution, significant challenges like maintaining control of ignition timing still remain. With simulation tools like the COMSOL Multiphysics® software, you can analyze the combustion process of an HCCI engine and gain deeper insight into ways to advance ignition control.

Imagine going to a hospital and having your vitals checked by a machine with a silicon skin, or exploring hard-to-reach areas on the ocean floor with a robot that moves like an octopus. Thanks to soft robotics, a field that involves the design of soft and nonrigid robots, these scenarios may become a possibility in the future. Find out more about this growing technology and the range of opportunities it provides.

Many polymers and biological tissues exhibit viscoelastic deformation, which has a time-dependent response even if the loading is constant in time. Linear viscoelasticity, where the stress depends linearly on the strain and strain rate, is a common approximation. We usually assume that the viscous part of the deformation is incompressible, so the volumetric deformation is purely elastic. In COMSOL Multiphysics® 5.2a, you can model large-strain viscoelasticity besides linear viscoelasticity. See how to use this material model in a biomedical application.

In 1961, R. Fitzhugh (Ref. 1) and J. Nagumo proposed a model for emulating the current signal observed in a living organism’s excitable cells. This became known as the FitzHugh-Nagumo (FN) model of mathematical neuroscience and is a simpler version of the Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) model (Ref. 2), which demonstrates the spiking currents in neurons. In today’s blog post, we’ll examine the dynamics of the FN model by building an interactive app in the COMSOL Multiphysics® software.

Cylindrical coordinates are useful for efficiently solving and postprocessing rotationally symmetric problems. The COMSOL Multiphysics® software has built-in support for cylindrical coordinates in the axisymmetry physics interfaces. When defining custom partial differential equations (PDEs) using the mathematical interfaces, paying close attention to their meaning is important. The PDE interfaces assume partial differentiation in a Cartesian system, requiring manual coordinate transformations to change to a cylindrical system. See how to account for such coordinate transformations when using your own PDEs.

Perforations, in mufflers for example, enable partial sound transmission between chambers as well as in and out of pipes. When simulating perforates, it’s possible to draw and mesh each hole, but this increases the time it takes to solve the model. For a more efficient approach, we can apply a semitransparent boundary. Here, we’ll discuss several techniques for doing so as well as describe a method for computing the transfer impedance of the perforate.

To help optimize your modeling processes, we are continuously striving to enhance the quality of our meshing capabilities. The recent improvements to the algorithm for generating tetrahedral meshes in the COMSOL Multiphysics® software are one such example. Follow along as we guide you through the process of generating a tetrahedral mesh to highlight this improved functionality and its correlating features, while discussing its role in helping you obtain better simulation results.