Model set-up is quick, thanks to a number of predefined physics interfaces for applications ranging from fluid flow and heat transfer to structural mechanics and electrostatics. Material properties, source terms, and boundary conditions can all be spatially varying, time-dependent, or functions of the dependent variables. You can freely mix physics interfaces into new multiphysics combinations as well as couple with any application specific module.

As an alternative to writing your own simulation code, the COMSOL Multiphysics user interface gives you the option to specify your own partial or ordinary differential equations (PDEs or ODEs) and link them with other physics interfaces. When combined with the CAD Import Module or one of the LiveLink products, this enables you to run custom simulations on CAD models from industry-standard formats.

New Application-Specific Modules
With the introduction of the five new modules, users in key application areas from major industries now have access to the new modeling and simulation tools offered by COMSOL.
- Multibody Dynamics Module – Provides users with the ability to analyze the assembly of rigid and flexible bodies. Transitional and rotational displacements, as well as locking, can be simulated for a variety of joint types, including prismatic, hinge, cylindrical, screw, planar, ball, slot, and reduced slot joints.
- Wave Optics Module – Allows users to analyze electromagnetic wave propagation in optically large structures, such as optical fibers and sensors, bidirectional couplers, plasmonic devices, metamaterials, laser beam propagation, and non-linear optical components.
- Molecular Flow Module – Offers the capability to simulate rarefied gas flow in complex CAD geometries of vacuum systems. This includes such applications as mass spectrometers, semiconductor processing, satellite technology, particle accelerators, shale gas exploration, and flow in nanoporous materials.
- Semiconductor Module – Enables the detailed analysis of semiconductor device operations at the fundamental physics level allowing for the modeling of PN junctions, bipolar transistors, MOSFETs, MESFETs, thyristors, and Schottky diodes.
- Electrochemistry Module – Tailored user interfaces are now available for electroanalysis, electrolysis, and electrodialysis. Typical applications include: glucose sensors, gas sensors, chlor-alkali electrolysis, desalination of seawater, waste water treatment, and control of electrochemical reactions in biomedical implants.

New COMSOL Multiphysics Capabilities
The new features delivered with the COMSOL product suite include enhancements to CAD importing and geometry handling, meshing, physics, solvers, results, and productivity tools that offer increased usability and performance throughout the product development process. COMSOL Multiphysics 4.3b brings tremendous enhancements to features in existing modules, thus augmenting simulation speed and the capabilities of the entire product suite.
- Geometry and Mesh – A new feature allows users to make quick what-if studies by taking a 2D geometry from the cross-section of a 3D geometry. A new curvilinear coordinate system tool makes it easier to define anisotropic materials in curved geometric shapes. Additionally, increased automated swept meshing capabilities allow for faster modeling.
- Interfacing and Productivity – The new One Window Interface with LiveLink for Inventor® allows users to work with COMSOL Multiphysics from within the Inventor environment. New updates in LiveLink for Excel allow the import of multiple models and export of material data from Excel to COMSOL.
- Electrical – A new magnetics solver facilitates faster stationary and time-dependent magnetics simulations. A new electrical contact feature is added to the AC/DC Module; the electric current flowing between two surfaces now varies according to surface properties and contact pressure. The periodic structures for electromagnetic waves feature is now available in the RF Module.
- Mechanical – Bolt pre-tension and beam cross-section analysis can now be simulated in the Structural Mechanics Module. Cumulative damage for fatigue analysis with random amplitude loads is now available in the Fatigue Module. The Heat Transfer Module has been enhanced with multi-wavelength surface-to-surface heat radiation, heat transfer with phase change, and thermal contact features.
- Fluid – The new frozen rotor feature in the CFD Module efficiently solves for the pseudo-steady flow field in rotating machinery for laminar and turbulent flow. A new thin screen feature for thin permeable barriers allows the simulation of wire gauzes, grills, and perforated plates. Additionally, the SST turbulence model and a new CFD solver are now available.
- Chemical – The new thin impermeable barrier for mass transport feature allows users to represent thin walls as interior boundaries with a no-mass-flux condition on both sides.