After switching to a more environmentally friendly coffee maker, we recently started disposing of our coffee grounds as food waste instead of trash, here at the COMSOL office in Burlington, MA. Figuring out how to do this properly was a project on its own, but an educational one worth sharing. To pull this off, I learned about composting in my area and was intrigued by the science of composting.

A couple of weeks ago, we exhibited at PTC® Live Global. In addition to manning the exhibition booth and learning about PTC® Creo® Parametric™ 3.0, we were introduced to a fantastic program called FIRST®, which gets kids involved in science and technology.

Born 179 years ago today, Josef Stefan was a brilliant Austrian physicist who studied radiation. He is credited with empirically deriving the relationship between the radiant energy of a blackbody and its temperature, known as the Stefan-Boltzmann law.

To make it easier and more transparent to define models involving multiple physics phenomena in COMSOL, a separate Multiphysics node has been added as a new feature in COMSOL version 4.4. The Multiphysics node gives you control over the couplings for thermal stress and electromagnetic thermal effects involved in your models. Future versions will include further multiphysics couplings through the Multiphysics node in addition to the multiphysics couplings methods already available since previous versions.

The International Temperature Scale of 1990 (ITS-90) is the industry calibration standard for measuring temperatures throughout the world. The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) works to establish and maintain the ITS-90 through experiments, most notably, thermometer calibration. To better understand and overcome the shortcomings of the experimental process, Jonathan Pearce, at the UK’s National Physics Laboratory, turned to simulation. His results yielded fascinating results about the microscopic behavior of the liquid-solid interface during the freezing process.

Professional baseball pitchers are able to make a baseball move left, right, down, and even up (sort of) to get it by the opposing batter. The physics behind this can be explained by the Magnus effect.

The most streamlined way to find solutions for your design parameters is to use parameter optimization with the LiveLink™ products. This is helpful when you know what results you want, but you don’t know the optimal parameter values that lead to them.

Meshing a geometry is an essential part of the simulation process, and can be crucial for obtaining the best results in the fastest manner. However, no one wants to be bogged down figuring out the exact specifications for their mesh. To help combat this problem, COMSOL Multiphysics has nine built-in size parameter sets when meshing. Here, we’ll discuss size parameters for free tetrahedral meshing. Swept meshing with prismatic and hex elements, and other types, will be covered in future postings.

Each COMSOL release aims to create a better modeling experience for our users, usually in the form of new add-on modules and new functionality in existing products. COMSOL 4.4 brings you all that, but it also includes another significant change: a brand new user interface (UI). The new UI contains a ribbon at the top of the interface (for our Windows® users) to make your modeling easier and faster. The ribbon gives you direct access to the functions you would […]

The Leidenfrost effect, also known as film boiling, occurs when a liquid comes into contact with a solid that is at a temperature well above the liquid’s boiling point. Upon contact, a layer of vapor forms between the liquid-solid interface, creating a barrier between the two. There are many examples of this phenomenon, ranging from something you may have seen in your kitchen (water “dancing” around in a pan) to things you shouldn’t try at home (dipping your hand into […]