Jeff Hiller
                                                                                                                                                    COMSOL Employee
                                                         
                            
                                                                                                                                                
                         
                                                
    
        Please login with a confirmed email address before reporting spam
     
    
 
                                                Posted:
                            
                                8 years ago                            
                            
                                2017/07/25 15:33 GMT-4                            
                        
                        Updated:
                            
                                8 years ago                            
                            
                                2017/07/26 8:56 GMT-4                            
                        
                        
                                                    There's no conceptual problem with setting up coefficients that depend on the solution itself. But obviously nonlinear problems require more caution than linear ones. With nonlinear equations, you have to be especially careful not to set up a problem that does not have any solution, or has several, for instance (The same concerns exist also with linear equations, of course, but such situations are much easier to detect and remedy). For nonlinear equations, it's also particularly important to set up suitable initial values for the variables that are being solved for. In your case, the default initial value (zero) is particularly poorly suited, since it results in a singular stiffness matrix.
If these pointers do not help, consider posting your model file.
Best,
Jeff                                                
                                                
                            There's no conceptual problem with setting up coefficients that depend on the solution itself. But obviously nonlinear problems require more caution than linear ones. With nonlinear equations, you have to be especially careful not to set up a problem that does not have any solution, or has several, for instance (The same concerns exist also with linear equations, of course, but such situations are much easier to detect and remedy). For nonlinear equations, it's also particularly important to set up suitable initial values for the variables that are being solved for. In your case, the default initial value (zero) is particularly poorly suited, since it results in a singular stiffness matrix.
If these pointers do not help, consider posting your model file.
Best,
Jeff