Multiphysics Simulation and App Deployment Boost Optimal Product Design

As new concepts are investigated, the design of new products and processes brought to market must push the limits of technology.

Multiphysics simulation software can boost your product design to help you bring innovative products to market while optimizing the use of resources throughout your organization.

For example, multiphysics simulation reduces need for testing and physical prototyping, as it allows specialists to create models that take into account any physical interactions as they happen in the real world.

Multiphysics simulation also enables collaboration among simulation specialists and experts in product design, as well as those in other departments using apps, which bring the predictive power of multiphysics to everyone involved in product design.

The COMSOL Multiphysics® software is unique in the way it receives user input and generates a mathematical model on the fly, consisting of differential equations, to describe the physics phenomena of interest to the simulation specialist. This core technology allows simulation specialists to create their own expressions and multiphysics couplings by directly typing the mathematical expressions in the user interface. This approach to multiphysics is crucial in delivering the accuracy needed when designing today’s complex products such as transducers, batteries, audio components, and more.

Cornell Dubilier created several apps for electrical optimization. The image shows one app that calculates effective series inductance (ESL) of a single-tab film capacitor. Simulation app made using COMSOL Multiphysics® software and provided courtesy of Cornell Dubilier.

However, with the shortage of simulation specialists, often the designer is an expert in the device being designed but not in the numerical methods and software needed to run a multiphysics model. Simulation specialists then find themselves creating a bottleneck for innovation. To address this obstacle and foster a culture of collaboration, the simulation specialists could build a user interface that simplifies the use of a multiphysics model by including only the input and output fields and reports needed by the device designer.

Simulation experts using COMSOL Multiphysics® have access to the Application Builder to create apps such as the one featured in the figure built by Sam Parler, Research Director at Cornell Dubilier, a leading manufacturer of high-quality capacitors, who comments: “I create apps for other departments to let them test different configurations for their particular requirements and pick the best design.” Apps can be published and accessed online through COMSOL Server™ software, which allows simulation specialists to administer and update them.

The adoption of simulation apps brings predictive power into the hands of simulation experts and device designers alike. We are committed to fully support businesses in achieving their next breakthrough in technology by democratizing the use of simulation software.