COMSOL Multiphysics v5.4 Adds Compiler and Composite Materials Module

Example of a compiled simulation application from the new COMSOL Compiler. (Image courtesy of COMSOL.)

COMSOL has announced the latest version of COMSOL Multiphysics: version 5.4. The release comes with two new products, COMSOL Compiler and the Composite Materials Module, along with performance improvements and additional modeling tools.

COMSOL Compiler is an interesting new product that plays to the efforts to democratize simulation. It allows users to create standalone COMSOL Multiphysics applications, which can run without COMSOL Multiphysics or a COMSOL Server license. Furthermore, these applications can be distributed without any additional license fees. COMSOL CEO Svante Littmarck explained further:

“Specialists can create simulation applications with the Application Builder that we released a few years ago. This has provided a new way for teams of engineers and scientists to bring the use of simulation to non-specialists. A little later we released COMSOL Server which is used to deploy and administrate applications via a Web interface. With COMSOL Compiler we are taking things to the next level by letting specialists compile an application into a single executable file for unlimited use and distribution. This is a level of freedom that the industry has not seen before,” Littmarck said.

The second new product, the Composite Materials Module, provides tools for users working with layered materials, like laminated composites. This module can be combined with new functionality for layered shells in the heat transfer and AC/DC modules, allowing users to perform multiphysics analysis such as Joule heating with thermal expansion.

“Composite laminated structures could have more than a hundred layers and setting up such a simulation is cumbersome without dedicated tools. We now offer such tools,” said COMSOL’s Pawan Soami.

A wind turbine blade analyzed with the Composite Materials Module. From top to bottom: Visualization of the shell local coordinate system and von Mises stress in skin and spars respectively. (Image courtesy of COMSOL.)

COMSOL Multiphysics v5.4 also adds features including:

The ability to use multiple parameter sets in a model
Faster computations on Windows 7 and 10 systems with more than 8 processor cores
A new part library in the AC/DC module with parametric coils and magnetic cores
Large eddy simulations in the CFD module
A new topology optimization tool

To learn more about COMSOL Multiphysics v5.4, visit COMSOL.com.