Multiphysics—Inside and Out
For years, product development was a painstaking process of trial and error - design, build prototypes, test, alter the design, build more prototypes. Computer simulation has helped reduce the number of steps needed; shortening the time between design concept and assembly line, but a significant problem remained: the software used to create models could only tackle one law of nature at a time. One could perform a mechanical analysis or an electromagnetic analysis, for example, but not both simultaneously in an integrated model. To accomplish true “virtual prototyping,” engineers needed to accurately predict the behavior of products in the real world, where multiple types of coupled physics interact. In the last decade, as ever-faster computer hardware spurred software innovations, a new, cross-disciplinary approach emerged: multiphysics simulation. This approach replaces the artificial segregation of different types of physics with a single unified simulation environment that replicates the complex behavior of natural systems.
Built to handle multiphysics simulations from its conception, COMSOL Multiphysics is a leader in a growing industry, with high-tech firms worldwide implementing it throughout their engineering and R&D departments. While the advantages this provides are innumerable, a company may particularly enjoy some key benefits:
• Reduce costs: The number of physical prototypes is drastically reduced. Thus, both the materials cost of the prototypes and the labor costs associated with the iteration process are gone. In addition, an engineering team can try many more virtual designs than they could test physical prototypes. As a result, the final design could be cheaper to manufacture.
• Design of better products: Virtual prototypes allow engineers to consider many more potential designs (or redesigns), the design can be thoroughly optimized with respect to all kinds of parameters. These models also provide more information than physical prototypes.
• Compressed time to market: Running virtual tests is much faster than building and testing physical prototypes, yielding a satisfactory design in less time. What used to take days, weeks, or even months to build and test, can be set up and solved in a matter of hours by a COMSOL user.
• Maintaining a competitive edge: Modelers can easily evaluate whether a new concept is viable without expending a lot of resources. And since the process is so fast, inexpensive, and safe, it encourages creativity and innovation. Researchers and engineers working for leading technical enterprises, research labs, and universities are already enjoying these benefits while they make our cars and aircraft safer and more energy efficient, enhance the reception to our cell phones, search for new energy sources, explore the universe, develop medical equipment enabling more accurate diagnosis, and educate the next generation of scientists. To discover how the adoption of COMSOL Multiphysics as a core technology has driven leading businesses forward, request a free copy of COMSOL’s eBook, Manager’s Guide to Productivity Gains with Multiphysics Simulation at www.comsol.com/ebook.