COMSOL Simulation Summit: Santa Clara

Modeling and simulation is no longer limited to the expertise of a few individuals within an organization. The availability of simulation tools throughout the product or process design workflow — from R&D to the factory floor — allows for a more collaborative and innovative approach to problem solving. Now, even those without prior modeling knowledge can contribute to the process, leveraging the expertise of modeling experts and advanced techniques like digital twins and surrogate models.

To facilitate this collaboration, the Application Builder in the COMSOL Multiphysics^® software enables modeling experts to create custom apps with user-friendly interfaces that can be used by scientists and engineers with no modeling experience. Taking it a step further, COMSOL Compiler™ enables organization-wide use of standalone simulation apps without licensing restrictions.

By using the Application Builder and COMSOL Compiler™ together with the COMSOL Multiphysics^® platform's built-in Model Builder and Model Manager, engineering organizations can establish an efficient, collaborative, simulation-based environment, supported by the realistic and predictive capabilities of digital twins and surrogate models.

Join this session to learn how the Application Builder and COMSOL Compiler™ can transform your organization's approach to simulation, making advanced tools accessible and fostering a culture of collaborative innovation.

Structural simulation plays an important role in the design of reliable products and structures by enabling the prediction of deformation, stress and strain levels, vibration behavior, and failure risks before building physical prototypes. The COMSOL Multiphysics^® software and its add-on Structural Mechanics Module provide an easy-to-use and complete finite element analysis (FEA) environment for modeling the mechanical behavior of solids and structures, including shells and beams, contact and friction, large deformations, and dynamic response.

In this session, we will provide an overview of the structural analysis capabilities in COMSOL Multiphysics^®, including static and transient loading, eigenfrequency and frequency response studies, and a range of nonlinear analyses. We will also highlight how built-in multiphysics couplings and specialized add-ons extend these capabilities to advanced material modeling, fatigue and durability evaluation, composites, and rotating machinery.

Solver performance becomes increasingly important as physics-based simulation models grow in size and complexity. The COMSOL Multiphysics^® software provides a wide selection of solver technologies for stationary and time-dependent problems, nonlinear systems, optimization, and both direct and iterative linear solvers, supporting built-in and user-defined multiphysics couplings for many engineering and scientific applications.

In this session, we will highlight recent solver and performance developments in COMSOL^® version 6.4, including support for explicit dynamics formulations for structural analysis, as well as a new NVIDIA CUDA^® direct sparse solver (cuDSS) for NVIDIA^® GPUs that is generally applicable for any physics. In addition, we will discuss a new mode-following method for parametric eigenfrequency analyses and practical strategies for solving large-scale problems efficiently, including solver selection based on time and memory requirements and the role of hardware factors such as memory bandwidth, processor architecture, and parallelization in overall simulation performance.

The COMSOL Multiphysics^® software and the Heat Transfer Module add-on are widely used for thermal analysis in devices and processes. Their simulation capabilities enable users to combine all three modes of heat transfer — conduction, convection, and radiation — and calculate temperature fields and heat fluxes in everything from small-scale components to larger assemblies and built environments.

COMSOL Multiphysics^® is designed to capture how thermal effects interact with other physics through multiphysics coupling, enabling realistic studies of conjugate heat transfer and nonisothermal flow; heat generation from various sources, including electromagnetic and chemical effects; and temperature-dependent material behavior.

In this session, we will provide an overview of the functionality in COMSOL Multiphysics^® that supports the design, optimization, and validation of thermal management solutions.

The COMSOL Multiphysics^® platform provides a comprehensive environment for modeling electromagnetics across a wide frequency range and application space. This includes low-frequency field and electromagnetic interference–electromagnetic compatibility (EMI/EMC) analysis, high-frequency RF and microwave device design, wave optics, ray tracing, and electric discharge phenomena. COMSOL Multiphysics^®, along with its add-on modules for electromagnetics, is designed to capture the interaction of electromagnetic fields with other physical effects, including thermal, mechanical, fluid, and material behavior, through multiphysics coupling.

In this session, we will provide an overview of the capabilities for modeling electromagnetics using COMSOL Multiphysics^® and highlight how simulation supports the design, optimization, and validation of electromagnetic devices and systems.

Modeling and simulation is essential for understanding and designing systems in which acoustics and vibrations play a central role, such as consumer electronics and vehicles as well as industrial machinery and performance spaces. Using COMSOL Multiphysics^® and the Acoustics Module, you can analyze sound propagation, sound insulation, and vibroacoustic behavior, including multiphysics couplings with structural vibrations and electromagnetic forces.

This session will provide an overview of the key acoustics modeling capabilities of COMSOL^®, with examples including loudspeaker and transducer design, duct and waveguide acoustics, room acoustics analysis using both wave- and ray-based methods, and thermoviscous effects in microscale geometries.