BANGALORE,INDIA: Leading software solutions vendor for multiphysics modeling, Comsol, today announced that its Comsol Multiphysics 4.0, a market-leading multiphysics modeling and simulation environment, will be released in December 2009. 

Chief Executive Officer, Comsol Group Dr. H.C. Svante Littmark, said here today that the software will be available with three new modules and API for customization of customer interface in March 2010.

The beta version Comsol Multiphysics 4.0 was first released at the Fifth Annual Comsol Conference at Boston, in October.

Version 4.0 delivers the Comsol Desktop, an all-new user interface that makes it easy for users to build and run simulations. Comsol Desktop's sleek design and graphical programming utility combine unprecedented power, ease of use, and flexibility into a single application. With version 4.0, Comsol will give high-tech firms a competitive edge in product innovation throughout their development departments.

“Over the last few years the use of multiphysics simulation has grown rapidly, especially within engineering and R&D departments. With the new Comsol Desktop environment we’re making it easier for more engineers to apply multiphysics to more applications,” comments Svante Littmarck.“The Comsol Desktop streamlines the modeling process for a broad user base. This unified interface is built for cross-disciplinary applications and is quick to learn. Comsol Multiphysics version 4.0 is key in advancing the product design processes for our customers by providing easy access to powerful tools.”

Smarter Workflow in the Comsol Desktop

The Comsol Desktop makes it easy to organize the work flow and gives a clean overview of the modeling process. Users can set up the desktop’s appearance easily using its docked window placement capabilities that include the Main menu, Model Builder, and a Help Desk as well as Settings, Messages, and Graphics windows.

The Model Builder brings a dynamic model configuration approach to simulations. Building a model is a straight-forward process of following along the model features.

Users just right-click to perform common tasks such as importing CAD, meshing, specifying material properties, solving, and plotting results. If changes need to be made, the Model Builder provides unobstructed access to any part of the model settings. Moreover, users can record and save the steps of the set-up to use sequentially as a model is automatically re-evaluated and refined. Dynamically updated context-dependent help enables easy browsing and extends the search functionality. This makes the Model Builder more than a workspace: its graphical programming at your fingertips.

A thermal actuator design is captured step-by-step in the Comsol Multiphysics Model Builder with a complete record of all operations. The multi-plot feature was used to create this image showing the temperature distribution on the surface in combination with the deformation and a close-up of the mesh near the anchors (inset).
 
“One of the nicest features of Comsol is how easy it is to use to define your own models and tailor it to one specific problem,” said Bernard Bunner, principal engineer with Waters Corp. in Milford, MA, a developer of high-performance liquid chromatography systems. “With version 4 we can be even more productive. The Model Builder speeds up many steps in the development work. For example, instead of saving several instances of a model, each representing a small variation of a feature in the design we can now simply save the entire suite and its results in the same model file."

Expanded CAD Interoperability

CAD interoperability remains a top priority to provide the very best path for CAD users to connect to Comsol Multiphysics for their simulations. To this end, Comsol now releases the LiveLink for PTC Pro/ENGINEER. By establishing associativity between the two geometry representations, changing a feature in the CAD model automatically updates the Comsol geometry accordingly. This enables multiphysics simulation involving parametric sweeps and design optimization directly from within Pro/ENGINEER. Versions of LiveLink for SolidWorks and Autodesk Inventor are already available as optional add-ons to Comsol Multiphysics.

Comsol Multiphysics version 4.0 greatly expands the geometry functionality by its CAD Import Module which is based on the Parasolid Editor geometry kernel from Siemens PLM.  Users now benefit from CAD tools that support Parasolid-based geometry operations directly in the Comsol Desktop. All solid operations are associative and now allow for multi-parameter sweeps over any group of geometry dimensions. Geometry models created from scratch or modified CAD models can be saved to Parasolid format directly.

Simulation Speed Up for All Users from Desktops to Clusters

Comsol Multiphysics version 4.0 supports parallel processing on standard multi-core computers as well as distributed memory systems (clusters). This means that users can turn to the already available implementation of shared memory on clusters to solve a series of identical parameterized models, one per computational node, or they can solve a single large model using distributed memory. For maximum performance, the Comsol cluster implementation can utilize shared memory multi-core processors on each computer or node in combination with the cluster distributed memory system. This brings a major performance boost by making the most out of the computational power installed. Version 4 supports Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, Windows HPC Server 2008, and Linux. Users can expect accelerated development of new cluster support in future versions of Comsol Multiphysics.

Comsol Multiphysics version 4.0 Highlights

• Comsol Desktop lets you organize your workflow and provides a clean overview of your simulation job.
• Quick model set-up in the Model Builder and its graphical programming utility throughout the modeling and simulation process. Instant access to model settings.
• Expanded CAD interoperability with new and updated products:
  LiveLink for Pro/ENGINEER
  LiveLink for SolidWorks
  LiveLink for Autodesk Inventor
• Expanded Parasolid support in the CAD Import Module enables 3D geometry operations to be performed in combination with imported geometries. This substantially extends the user’s ability to repair imported CAD geometries.
• Geometry parameter sweeps with full associativity. Solid operations are associative and allow for multi-parameter sweeps over any group of geometry dimensions.
• New solvers
  Modal solver for frequency response and time domain (for structural and acoustics simulations for example).
  AWE solver for harmonical electromagnetics simulations
  Predefined analysis combination:  non-linear plus frequency-response solver (for small signal analysis and pre-stressed structures simulations for example)
  Non-linear least squares solver for parameter estimation
  Direct solvers MUMPS and SPOOLES for cluster computing
• Fully automated simulation configuration of solver settings, solver sequences, mesh settings, and result visualization.
• Fast graphics with new functionality allowing users to display multiple plots simultaneously.
• Expanded platform support for clusters on Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, Windows HPC Server 2008, and Linux.