Mechanical | Posted on
April 19th, 2013 by
Andrew Griesmer
I will always remember a Geotechnical Engineering class I took during the pursuit of my Civil Engineering degree. It contained both the high and low points for that academic semester; the lab portion was a lot of fun, learning about (read: playing with) the different soils and clays existing in the state of Georgia. The final project, on the other hand, tasked us with designing a retaining wall to match certain specifications — a tough and lengthy assignment. A retaining wall is used to hold back soil from a region you don’t want it to move to, such as a lower level of the ground. If excavating close to a retaining wall, you’re subjecting it to additional forces it was not originally designed for, and it may require subsequent support. How much easier it could have been had we only known about geomechanics simulation software.
Read more on: Digging into COMSOL’s Geomechanics Module
Electrochemical | Posted on
April 18th, 2013 by
Phil Kinnane
It’s always been hard to place the field of electrochemistry into a more traditional engineering field. Departments and institutions that focus on electrochemical applications can be found within the faculties of Chemical Engineering, Physics, Materials Science, Physical Chemistry, and even Civil Engineering and Electrical Engineering. I believe this is because electrochemistry is heavily involved in applications that are quite varied — and in some ways quite new. Electrochemical applications need to be studied before they can be understood and optimized, but doing this experimentally doesn’t give all the answers.
Read more on: Why Model Electrochemical Applications?
Conference | Posted on
April 17th, 2013 by
Lauren Sansone
If you’re the type of person who appreciates structure and ease-of-use, then as a COMSOL Conference 2013 registrant you will love the My Conference tool. This year we have revamped the system to let you quickly customize your conference program. Now you have the opportunity to add and edit your conference minicourse program whenever you prefer. We have also improved the functionality for presenters to edit and upload their abstracts and papers or posters, as well as get updates on the status of their presentation.
Read more on: How to Prepare for the COMSOL Conference 2013
Fluid | Posted on
April 16th, 2013 by
Bjorn Sjodin
Vacuum is naturally associated with the hostile environment of deep space. To achieve such an environment in an artificial setting here on Earth is a very challenging task, and it turns out one cannot even come close to the low pressures of an interstellar vacuum. It is at these low pressures that molecular flow occurs.
Read more on: What is Molecular Flow?
Mechanical | Posted on
April 15th, 2013 by
Vineet Dravid
The dynamic analysis of interconnected bodies or links is called a multibody analysis. These bodies are connected by joints that constrain their relative motion. The simplest element of a multibody system is a single particle, which can be considered using Newton’s laws of motion. Multibody Dynamics has a long and storied background.
Read more on: Multibody Dynamics
Acoustics | Posted on
April 12th, 2013 by
Bethany Moatts
When given the choice, we’d all prefer our loudspeakers to project perfect sound; having a phone conversation with someone who sounds like a robot caught in a windstorm is less than ideal. The quality of the sound is, naturally, dependent on how well the speaker is designed, and COMSOL Multiphysics is the perfect tool to simulate and optimize loudspeaker designs because of its easy-to-use multiphysics nature. For a loudspeaker analysis to be accurate, you must be able to simulate from signal to sound with all the linking steps in between that determine how what you want to hear is transferred into what you actually will hear from a particular loudspeaker. Each step in the process will be interrelated, so it’s important to use this integrated multiphysics approach to capture each of these complex relationships. In the video at the bottom of this blog post, I will show you how our software can be used to perform a loudspeaker analysis.
Read more on: Calling All Audiophiles: Loudspeaker Analysis Video
Fluid | Posted on
April 11th, 2013 by
Jennifer Segui
If you enjoy ketchup with your food, there’s a good chance you’ve experienced what we’ll call here the all-or-nothing ketchup quandary. You know, that moment when you reach for a new glass bottle of ketchup, remove the cap, and turn the bottle practically upside down — and then nothing happens. Intuitively you shake or tap the bottle, and then suddenly your food is completely coated in ketchup (unless your reflexes are really good, of course). In this blog post we explain the all-or-nothing effect of pouring ketchup, with a simulation of “ketchup flow from a bottle”.
Read more on: Non-Newtonian Fluids: The Pouring Ketchup Quandary
News | Posted on
April 10th, 2013 by
Fanny Littmarck
Everyone’s talking about graphene right now. When was the last time a material received this much attention? Sure, other materials have peaked our interest before, but when something breaks into more mainstream news you know it’s going to be a very big deal.
Read more on: The Graphene Revolution: Part 3
Mechanical | Posted on
April 9th, 2013 by
Fanny Littmarck
We’ve all encountered hinges before; they are frequently used to connect different parts of mechanical assemblies in a way that allows them to move freely relative to one another, in a single degree of freedom. There are several different types of hinges, including everything from barrel hinges to friction hinges, with lots in between. Before incorporating a hinge into a mechanical assembly, you might want to get a sense of how it will hold up by performing a hinge analysis.
Read more on: Barrel Hinge Analysis
Conference | Posted on
April 8th, 2013 by
Bernt Nilsson
The COMSOL Conference Program Chair is a special person. It is a person to envy. Wouldn’t you like to connect with the top multiphysics simulation experts, study their coolest applications, and showcase their work in the limelight of the COMSOL Conference 2013? I certainly would — but that is the role of the Program Chair.
Read more on: Meet the COMSOL Conference 2013 Program Chairs
