COMSOL Multiphysics^® 5.3 Release Highlights

COMSOL^® Software Version 5.3 Brings Significant Performance Improvements

COMSOL Multiphysics^® version 5.3 provides you with notable performance improvements as compared to earlier versions. You will experience speedup by a factor of up to ten in software responsiveness, as well as new and improved features for solving, meshing, and the physics-based add-on modules. Version 5.3 makes it more efficient to create models and deploy and run apps.

We have summarized the major news in COMSOL^® software version 5.3 for you on this page. Browse the menu to the left for information about specific add-on products and more details on core functionality updates.

Ready to update COMSOL Multiphysics^®? Click on the Download Version 5.3 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.

COMSOL Multiphysics^® Software Performance Improvements

COMSOL Multiphysics^® version 5.3 provides significant performance improvements as compared to version 5.2a and earlier versions. These are most noticeable when working with models made up of a variety of several thousand domains, boundaries, edges, and points.

The following table shows the most important of these performance improvements and the estimated speedup when handling larger models.

General Updates

• Use the newly available Model method functionality in the Model Builder to automate and manipulate a large number of modeling tasks
• Perform customized actions when clicking on plots in Graphics form objects in apps
• Administrate cluster settings and usage log files in the COMSOL Server™ product
• Automatic generation of pyramid element transition layers between hex, prism, and tet meshes
• Automatically remove small geometric details to provide more robust meshes
• Simultaneously visualize different parameter values of different scales on the dual y-axes of 1D plots
• Visualize specific and important parts of 3D plots through filters based on selections
• Receive suggestions for direct and iterative solvers for choosing between fast or memory-conservative solutions
• Combine two time-dependent or parametric solutions into one for further use
• Generate adaptive meshes that are integrated with user-defined mesh sequences

Electromagnetics

• Model electrostatics applications with a new physics interface based on the boundary element method, which can also be combined with finite element method modeling
• Perform fast capacitance and general lumped matrix calculations with a new study type
• Review and manipulate a new permanent magnet motor tutorial model
• Utilize a new Part Library for standard RF and microwave components
• Apply automatic termination of rays in ray optics models by employing user-defined bounding boxes or intensity drops
• Import photometric data files for ray optics modeling
• Use the new Schrödinger Equation interface for quantum mechanical computations in 1D, 2D, and 3D

Structural Mechanics and Acoustics

• New Structural Mechanics Modeling Features in COMSOL^® 5.3 Webinar July 6 [2 p.m. CEST] [2 p.m. EDT]
• New Acoustics Module Features in COMSOL^® 5.3 Webinar May 23 [2 p.m. CEST] [2 p.m. EDT]
• Develop models involving self-equilibrating loads more easily with automatic constraints of rigid body motions
• Quickly assess the need for elastoplastic analyses on components through calculating safety factors in linear elastic analyses
• Enact stress linearization evaluations for pressure vessels
• Utilize the new Lemaitre-Chaboche viscoplastic material model
• Review and manipulate a new Rotor Bearing System Simulator app for rotordynamics
• Review and further use two new tutorial models coupling vibrations with noise in a gearbox and an induction motor
• Apply perfectly matched layers (PMLs) for absorbing outgoing waves in time-dependent pressure acoustics analyses
• Analyze transient thermoviscous acoustics applications

Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer

• New Heat Transfer Modeling Features in COMSOL^® 5.3 Webinar May 10 [2 p.m. CEST] [2 p.m. EDT]
• New CFD Modeling Features in COMSOL^® 5.3 Webinar June 14 [2 p.m. CEST] [2 p.m. EDT]
• Utilize the new highly automated and robust algebraic multigrid (AMG) solver for fluid flow
• Apply the newly available v2-f turbulence model for CFD simulations with strong turbulence anisotropy
• Make use of the automatic treatment of flow near walls to switch between different formulations for modeling turbulent flow dependent on mesh resolution
• Simulate wells with a new boundary condition that easily defines injection inflows and exploitation outflows
• Develop models involving heat and moisture transport in air with a new physics interface
• Use material property data from a library of building and refrigerant materials
• Include diffuse and direct solar radiation in surface-to-surface radiation models
• Employ multiple symmetry planes to simulate heat radiation in all directions simultaneously with reduced computational costs

Chemical

• Increase your modeling of reaction applications with the new multiphysics interfaces for reacting flow and transport in porous media, and fractures in impervious and porous media
• Extend modeling with the Nernst-Planck equations with the Poisson equation for charge conservation in a new interface
• Utilize a new electrophoretic transport interface to model acid-base equilibria in aqueous systems
• Consider Donnan equilibrium in updated interfaces for ion-exchange membranes and thin electrolyte layers
• Model current distribution on large, complex, and thin structures using the boundary element method
• Increase your modeling capabilities for corrosion by thin liquid layers using a new Current Distribution, Shell interface

Multipurpose and Interfacing

• New Particle Tracing Features in COMSOL^® 5.3 Webinar July 20 [2 p.m. CEST] [2 p.m. EDT]
• Apply periodic conditions for particle tracing in periodic structures or geometries with sector symmetries
• Make use of the new rotating frames functionality for easier modeling of particles in rotating machinery
• Easily and quickly allow the release of particles at random initial positions
• Synchronize CAD assembly selections more efficiently with LiveLink™ for SOLIDWORKS^® and LiveLink™ for Inventor^®
• Allow for synchronization of curves and points for simulations that use these entities with LiveLink™ for AutoCAD^®
• Investigate how to import and mesh a PCB geometry from an ODB++® archive file in a new tutorial