In the 1615 novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, the titular character, who fantasizes about being a medieval knight, mistakes windmills for giants and charges at them, only to get his lance stuck in one of the sails. While modern wind turbine blades don’t have to withstand that kind of pointed force, it’s important to perform stress and modal analyses of blade designs to account for various — and more realistic — structural and environmental loads.

Ever wonder why the sky is blue? Lord Rayleigh answered this question, explaining that the color comes from the scattering of sunlight off small particles in the atmosphere. A prolific scientist, Rayleigh made notable contributions to a wide range of fields, including optics, acoustics, and fluid flow. He is best known for discovering argon, an accomplishment for which he won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Material deposition is an essential ingredient in certain manufacturing processes, including welding and additive manufacturing. Say that you want to simulate such a manufacturing process. A challenge that you will face during the simulation is depositing material in a way that introduces it in a state of zero stress. Here, we look at the Activation functionality in the COMSOL Multiphysics® software and how it facilitates the simulation of material deposition.

Modern optical systems are often required to operate in harsh environments, including high altitudes, space, underwater, and in laser and nuclear facilities. Such optical systems are subjected to structural loads and extreme temperatures. The most accurate way to fully capture these environmental effects is through numerical simulation via a structural-thermal-optical performance (STOP) analysis. STOP analysis is the quintessential multiphysics problem. In this blog post, we show how to combine structural, thermal, and optical effects using the COMSOL Multiphysics® software.

Even though the first man-made light source used thermal radiation, the effect wasn’t fully understood until the discovery of quantum mechanics. Nowadays, it’s a well-known physics concept. In this blog post, we discuss surface-to-surface radiation theory for the so-called gray body, how to implement it in the COMSOL Multiphysics® software, and an interesting use of this theory.

Electroplating is commonly used for surface finishing due to its effectiveness across the automotive, electronics, corrosion protection, aerospace, and defense industries. Since WWII, the number of patents claiming to achieve “perfect plating” has increased exponentially. The focus of the narrative surrounding electrochemical plating has also shifted from complex chemical reactions toward perfecting operating conditions. In this blog post, we show how to achieve smoother metal surfaces during reverse pulse plating (RPP) using the COMSOL Multiphysics® software and add-on Electrodeposition Module.

The COMSOL Conference 2018 Lausanne provided attendees with an exciting taste of all that Switzerland has to offer, including a musical performance by alpine horn players, a traditional Swiss wine and cheese reception, and a trip to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva. Just as diverse were the research presentations given by conference attendees, who traveled from around Europe, and as far as South Africa, to discuss their innovative work with our multiphysics simulation community.

To help understand the complicated universe we live in, we have compartmentalized physics phenomena into distinct disciplinary specializations. However, natural and engineering problems often cross these utilitarian borders. A major strength of the COMSOL Multiphysics® software is the ease with which such cross-disciplinary interactions, which we refer to as multiphysics interactions, can be accounted for. The COMSOL® software provides a plethora of built-in multiphysics couplings and even enables users to implement their own physics couplings.

Nearly 400 academic and industrial engineers and researchers from 38 countries joined us last week for the annual COMSOL Conference in Lausanne. Mild fall weather accompanied us for all three days of the event, letting the sun shine through the impressive Graetzel cell windows of the SwissTech Convention Center. Read about the highlights of the conference and browse the photo album below.

Is the boundary element method (BEM) a viable alternative to FEM for magnetostatics modeling? In a three-part series of tutorials, we perform electromagnetic force calculations using the Maxwell stress tensor to demonstrate the capabilities of BEM. The results are validated against analytical models and compared with results from FEM to show the value and utility of boundary elements for this purpose. Read on for a preview of what you’ll learn in the tutorial series.