It has been a remarkably warm winter in Boston, but we finally got our first snowfall. As I was staring out the window earlier, I started thinking about snowflakes and how their formation cannot be easily described mathematically. However, there is one special kind of snowflake that can be simply described, known as the Koch snowflake. Today, we will look at how this shape can be built with the Application Builder in COMSOL Multiphysics.

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.

The geometric kernel is the software component responsible for handling geometry in COMSOL Multiphysics®. You may be wondering what this means or how and why you would use it when modeling. Let’s find out.

A while back, I blogged about a new feature made available in COMSOL Multiphysics 4.3b, the ability to create 2D models from the cross sections of 3D geometries. We are so excited for this new feature that we decided to make a video showing you how easy it is to use.

Our newest release, COMSOL Multiphysics version 4.3b, contains so many new modules and features, certain additions might get lost in the fray. One addition to the COMSOL Multiphysics base package we don’t want you to miss is the ability to create 2D models from cross sections of 3D geometries. This easy-to-use feature allows engineers to simplify the model, gain understanding of and fine-tune parameters, and dramatically reduce simulation time.

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.

Importing meshes into COMSOL Multiphysics is often necessary when interfacing between different programs. With COMSOL Multiphysics version 5.0, these meshes can be converted into solid geometry objects for further investigation and modeling capabilities. You can also perform boolean operations on the new geometry for CFD, electromagetics, and acoustics applications.

Quite often we get asked the question “can I 3D print my COMSOL model?” Well, as of version 4.3b, the answer is “yes!” This is because it is now possible to export geometries and meshes as STL files, which is one of the standard file formats for 3D printing. This allows for rapid prototyping of designs; there is no need to outsource parts to machine shops. It is quite remarkable that you could conceive, simulate, optimize, and prototype a design […]

Curvilinear coordinates are a coordinate system where the coordinate lines may be curved. The new user interface for automatic computation of curvilinear coordinates is a very practical addition to version 4.3b for those working with anisotropic materials in free-form CAD designs. If you have a generic bent shape and try to apply the usual coordinate systems like Cartesian, cylindrical, or spherical, you are out of luck. Curvilinear coordinates are needed to smoothly follow the design, which typically has no mathematical […]

There is sometimes a need to include data from other simulation packages into a COMSOL Multiphysics model. There are a variety of ways in which this can be done, but one of the easiest approaches is to read in the point cloud data via a spreadsheet format text file. In this blog post, we walk through the steps of reading in such data, and using it in a COMSOL model.