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Tips and Tricks

Some Tips & Tricks in COMSOL

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1. Express anything in terms of anything!

Materials and settings can simultaneously be:
complex-valued

directly type in values such as 2.5-j*0.1 or exp(-j*pi/2*(z+x)) etc.

for permittivity, refractive index, conductivity, or permeability

frequency dependent
anisotropic
spatially varying
nonlinear in for instance temperature T:

Ex: for conductivity, directly type in values as

5e6*(1-0.01*(T-273.15)) or
5e6*exp(-0.01*(T-273.15))
interpolated from tabulated data

2. Pick the right interface!

Example1 : Electric fields

Electrostatics or electric currents
Current or no currents

Electric currents, Shell

Magnetic field
Current or no current

Both Magnetic and electric

Example 2: Fluid flow

Stokes Flow
Laminar
Turbulent
High Reynolds
Low Reynolds

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3. Pick the right study type!

Stationary

Time Dependent

Steady-state solutions
Transients

Frequency Domain
Assume solution u u0 sin(t )
Solve one frequency at a time

Eigenfrequency

Frequency-Stationary, Frequency-Transient, etc.

Find mode shapes and eigenfrequencies

Specialized study types for multiphysics combinations
Treat for example an EM problem in the frequency domain and the induced
heating in the time domain
Good approximation if the heat problem is much slower than the EM problem

4. Expand windows!

Expand windows by double-clicking on the tab

Improved view easier to see

Return by double-clicking again

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5. Use Functions!

Available under Global Definitions > Functions

6. Adaptive mesh

If you do not know where to refine your mesh....

...use Adaptive mesh and let COMSOL do it for you!
Available in the Study Node
Stationary problems

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7. Name your selections!

Define once reuse any number of times

When defining materials

In physics settings
In postprocessing
...

8. Shadowing and Additive features

Physics features can be shadowing or additive

Source terms add

Constraints shadow

Improved book keeping

Avoid mixing flux contributions in one feature

Easier to control individual sources

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9. Deform your geometry!

Use to create shapes that can be described by functions

See Moving mesh ALE
You can also move and rotate things in your model

z=0.1*cos(100*Xm)*cos(100*Ym)*Zm

New in 4.2: Parameterized surfaces

Import interpolation data for elevation

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10. Revolve your solution!

Revolve axisymmetric solution data into 3D

Only a postprocessing step

11. Plot deformations in scale!

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12. Check the Error node!

13. Visit www.comsol.com/support !

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Step-by-step instructions are

included for all models in the model
library find it under the file menu

14. Model Library

And now...

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The very most powerful trick:

15. Walk to China step by step!

-Key to solve large multiphysics models

- Start with one or a few physics

-Add more one at the time
-Simplify modeling a lot!

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Tips and Tricks

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