Major News in COMSOL Multiphysics® Version 5.5

COMSOL Multiphysics® version 5.5 features new sketching tools for drawings in 2D and 3D work planes, constraints and dimensions with the Design Module, and two new modules. The Metal Processing Module can be used for simulating metallurgical phase transformations, such as steel quenching, and the Porous Media Flow Module can be used to model mass, momentum, and energy transport in porous media. We have summarized the major news in COMSOL® software version 5.5 for you below. Browse the menu to the left for more details on core functionality and specific add-on products.

Ready to update COMSOL Multiphysics®? Click the Download Version 5.5 button, which will take you to the Product Download page. It is easy to download the latest version of the COMSOL® software if you have a COMSOL Access account with your license number linked to it. Simply log in and follow the onscreen product download directions.

Free Webinar: Introducing COMSOL Multiphysics® 5.5

General Updates

  • New sketching tools for easier creation of 2D drawings
  • Dimensions and constraints for drawings with the Design Module
  • Safe placement of higher-order nodes for meshing
  • New tools for editing additive manufacturing, 3D printing, and 3D scanning formats
  • PLY and 3MF import and export
  • Context menu in the Graphics window
  • Keep enabled option for select box, deselect box, and zoom box
  • Customize the Graphics toolbar
  • Performance improvements for cluster computing
  • Custom gradient between two colors in plots
  • Animation of points and arrows for streamline plots
  • Export images directly to PowerPoint®
  • Create your own add-ins for customizing the Model Builder workflow
  • Minimum-sized standalone application files with COMSOL Compiler™

Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer

  • New product: Porous Media Flow Module
  • New product: Metal Processing Module
  • Lumped thermal systems circuit equivalents
  • Multiple spectral bands in radiation in participating media
  • Nonisothermal large eddy simulation (LES)
  • Compressible Euler flow
  • Bubbly flow, Euler–Euler, level set, and phase field models for flow in rotating machinery
  • Viscoelastic flow
  • Arbitrary number of dispersed phases

Electromagnetics

  • Piezoelectric and dielectric shells
  • New Lorentz Force feature
  • Direct TEM and via ports for printed circuit board simulations
  • Mixed-mode S-parameters
  • New specific absorption rate (SAR) calculation feature
  • Matched and scattering boundary conditions for Gaussian beams
  • Evanescent Gaussian background fields
  • Periodic port variables for polarization determination
  • Full-wave electromagnetics to ray optics coupling
  • Automatic spot diagram calculation
  • Compute the electron energy distribution function (EEDF) in space-dependent problems
  • Corona Discharge interface for modeling of electrostatic precipitators
  • Electrical Breakdown Detection interface to predict whether electrical breakdown will occur

Structural Mechanics and Acoustics

  • Mechanical contact for shells, composites, and membranes
  • Plasticity and other nonlinear material models for shells and composites
  • New Pipe Mechanics interface
  • Piezoelectric and dielectric shells with the AC/DC Module
  • Random vibration analysis
  • Nonisothermal fluid-structure interaction (FSI)
  • Fast linear elastic wave analysis with structure-fluid coupling
  • Ports for thermoviscous acoustics analysis
  • 3D-to-1D pipe acoustics coupling
  • Structural-acoustics interactions for composite shells
  • Smooth mapping for using CFD results in aeroacoustics

Chemical

  • Generate materials and Chemistry interfaces from the thermodynamics database
  • Electrochemical reactions in the Chemistry interface
  • Current distribution in pipes
  • Predefined Short Circuit feature for lumped battery simulations

Optimization

  • Built-in tools for shape optimization
  • Shape optimization on shells
  • Smoothed geometry models from topology optimization results
  • Confidence intervals for parameter estimation

Particle Tracing

  • Extensions to built-in forces for Particle Tracing for Fluid Flow, including virtual mass and pressure gradient forces
  • Computation time reduced by more than 50% for some particle tracing models

CAD Import Module, Design Module, and LiveLink™ Products for CAD

  • Associative geometry import
  • Selections from materials, layers, and colors
  • Delete holes defeaturing operation
  • Export to IGES and STEP

Microsoft and PowerPoint are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. COMSOL, COMSOL Multiphysics, LiveLink, and COMSOL Compiler are either registered trademarks or trademarks of COMSOL AB.