COMSOL Multiphysics is a powerful interactive and integrated simulation environment used to model and solve all kinds of scientific and engineering problems. The software provides a powerful integrated desktop environment with a Model Builder that gives you a full overview of the model and access to all functionality. With COMSOL Multiphysics you can easily extend conventional models for one type of physics into multiphysics models that solve coupled physics phenomena — and that do so simultaneously. Accessing this power does not require an in-depth knowledge of mathematics or numerical analysis.
Using the built-in physics interfaces and
multiphysics interfaces and the advanced support for material properties, you can build models by defining the relevant physical quantities — such as material properties, loads, constraints, sources, and fluxes — rather than by defining the underlying equations. You can always apply these variables, expressions, or numbers directly to solid and fluid domains, boundaries, edges, and points independently of the computational mesh. The COMSOL Multiphysics software then internally compiles a set of equations representing the entire multiphysics model.
The COMSOL Multiphysics software creates sequences to record all steps that create the geometry, mesh, physics, studies and solver settings, and visualization and results presentation. This makes it easy to parameterize any part of the model; simply change a node in the model tree and rerun the sequences. The program remembers and reapplies all other information and data in the model. You can also perform powerful and flexible parametric sweeps that vary some material, load, or other model property.
Many real-world applications involve simultaneous couplings of physics, represented in a system of PDEs — multiphysics. For instance, the electric resistance of a conductor often varies with temperature, and a model of a conductor carrying current should include resistive-heating effects. The
Multiphysics Modeling Workflow section discusses multiphysics modeling techniques. Predefined multiphysics interfaces provide easy-to-use entry points for common multiphysics applications.