When using the finite element method, we often want to model solid objects that are rotating and translating within other domains. The deformed mesh interfaces in COMSOL Multiphysics can be used to model these movements. In this blog post, we will look at the modeling of large linear translations and rotations of domains within other domains, while introducing efficient modeling techniques for addressing such cases.

Modeling geometries with high aspect ratios can be one of the more challenging tasks for the finite element analyst. You want to have a mesh that will accurately represent the geometry and the solution, but you do not want too many elements, as solving your models would then require excessive computational resources. Here, we will look at using swept meshing to generate efficient and accurate finite element meshes in the context of some common modeling cases.

Often, the most tedious step of finite element modeling is subdividing your CAD geometry into a finite element mesh. This step, usually just called meshing, can sometimes be fully automated. More often, however, the careful finite element analyst will want to semi-manually create their meshes. Although this does require more work, sometimes there are significant advantages in doing so. In this blog entry, we will look at one of the key manual meshing techniques: the concept of geometric partitioning.

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.

COMSOL Multiphysics includes two interfaces for manually defining the deformation of finite element mesh, the Deformed Geometry interface and the Moving Mesh interface. In this blog post, we will address when to use these interfaces and how to use them to efficiently model translational motion.

Over the last several weeks, we’ve published a series of blog posts addressing the various domain and boundary conditions available for wave electromagnetics simulation in the frequency domain; as well as modeling, meshing, and solving options. In this blog post, I will tie all of this information together and provide an introduction to the various types of problems that you can solve in the RF and Wave Optics modules.

When solving wave electromagnetics problems, it is likely that you will want to model a domain with open boundaries — that is, a boundary of the computational domain through which an electromagnetic wave will pass without any reflection. COMSOL Multiphysics offers several solutions for this. Today, we will look at using scattering boundary conditions and perfectly matched layers for truncating domains and discuss their relative merits.

Here’s a question for all you electromagnetics-focused simulation engineers out there: Have you ever looked in envy at your structural, fluid, and chemical counterparts as they mesh their models with the click of a button, while you struggle to mesh your infinite elements or perfectly matched layers? Well, now you too can enjoy automatic meshing with a click (or two). Let me show you how.

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.