INTRODUCTION TO

COMSOL Multiphysics

Introduction to COMSOL Multiphysics

19982015 COMSOL
Protected by U.S. Patents listed on www.comsol.com/patents, and U.S. Patents 7,519,518; 7,596,474; 7,623,991;
8,457,932; and 8,954,302. Patents pending.
This Documentation and the Programs described herein are furnished under the COMSOL Software License
Agreement (www.comsol.com/comsol-license-agreement) and may be used or copied only under the terms of the
license agreement.
COMSOL, COMSOL Multiphysics, Capture the Concept, COMSOL Desktop, LiveLink, and COMSOL Server are
either registered trademarks or trademarks of COMSOL AB. All other trademarks are the property of their respective
owners, and COMSOL AB and its subsidiaries and products are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or
supported by those trademark owners. For a list of such trademark owners, see www.comsol.com/trademarks.
Version: COMSOL 5.1

Contact Information
Visit the Contact COMSOL page at www.comsol.com/contact to submit general inquiries,
contact Technical Support, or search for an address and phone number. You can also visit the
Worldwide Sales Offices page at www.comsol.com/contact/offices for address and contact
information.
If you need to contact Support, an online request form is located at the COMSOL Access page at
www.comsol.com/support/case.
Other useful links include:
Support Center: www.comsol.com/support
Product Download: www.comsol.com/product-download
Product Updates: www.comsol.com/support/updates
Discussion Forum: www.comsol.com/community
Events: www.comsol.com/events
COMSOL Video Gallery: www.comsol.com/video
Support Knowledge Base: www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase
Part number: CM010004

Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
COMSOL Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Example 1: Structural Analysis of a Wrench. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Example 2: The BusbarA Multiphysics Model . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Advanced Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Parameters, Functions, Variables and Couplings. . . . . . . . . . 78
Material Properties and Material Libraries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Adding Meshes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Adding Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Parametric Sweeps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Parallel Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Appendix ABuilding a Geometry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Appendix BKeyboard and Mouse Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Appendix CLanguage Elements and Reserved Names. . . 139
Appendix DFile Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Appendix EConnecting with LiveLink Add-Ons . . . . . . 158

Contents

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4 | Contents

Introduction
Read this book if you are new to COMSOL Multiphysics. It provides a quick
overview of the COMSOL environment with examples that show you how to use
the COMSOL Desktop user interface and the Model Builder.
If you have not yet installed the software, install it now according to the
instructions at:
www.comsol.com/product-download.
In addition to this book, an extensive documentation set is available after
installation. A video gallery with tutorials can be found at:
www.comsol.com/video.
For information on how to use the Application Builder, see Introduction to
Application Builder.

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COMSOL Desktop

QUICK ACCESS TOOLBARUse these

buttons for access to functionality such as file
open/save, undo/redo, copy/paste, and delete.

RIBBONThe ribbon tabs have buttons

and drop-down lists for controlling all
steps of the modeling process.

APPLICATION BUILDER
Click this button to switch to
the Application Builder and
start building an application
based on your model.

MODEL BUILDER
TOOLBAR

MODEL TREEThe model

tree gives an overview of the
model and all the functionality
and operations needed for
building and solving a model as
well as processing the results.

MODEL BUILDER
WINDOWThe Model
Builder window with its model
tree and the associated
toolbar buttons gives you an
overview of the model. The
modeling process can be
controlled from
context-sensitive menus
accessed by right-clicking a
node.

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SETTINGS WINDOWClick
any node in the model tree to
see its associated Settings
window displayed next to the
Model Builder.

GRAPHICS WINDOW TOOLBAR

GRAPHICS WINDOWThe Graphics window presents

interactive graphics for the Geometry, Mesh, and Results
nodes. Operations include rotating, panning, zooming, and
selecting.

INFORMATION WINDOWSThe Information windows will display vital

model information during the simulation, such as the solution time, solution
progress, mesh statistics, solver logs, and, when available, results tables.

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The screenshot on the previous pages is what you will see when you first start
modeling in COMSOL Multiphysics. COMSOL Desktop provides a complete
and integrated environment for physics modeling and simulation as well as
application design, providing you with the tools necessary to build a user-friendly
interface for your models. You can customize the desktop to your own needs. The
windows can be resized, moved, docked, and detached. Any changes you make to
the layout will be saved when you close the session and available again the next
time you open COMSOL Multiphysics. As you build your model, additional
windows and widgets will be added. (See page 25 for an example of a more
developed desktop.) Among the available windows and user interface components
are the following:
Quick Access Toolbar
The Quick Access Toolbar gives access to functionality such as Open, Save, Undo,
Redo, Copy, Paste, and Delete. You can customize its content from the
Customize Quick Access Toolbar list.
Ribbon
The ribbon at the top of the desktop gives access to commands used to complete
most modeling tasks. The ribbon is only available in the Windows version of the
COMSOL Desktop environment and is replaced by menus and toolbars in the
OS X and Linux versions. Click the Application Builder button to switch from
the Model Builder to the Application Builder and start building an application
based on your model.
Settings Window
This is the main window for entering all of the specifications of the model
including the dimensions of the geometry, properties of the materials, boundary
conditions and initial conditions, and any other information that the solver will

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need to carry out the simulation. The picture below shows the Settings window
for the Geometry node.

Plot Windows
These are the windows for graphical output. In addition to the Graphics window,
Plot windows are used for visualizing results. Several Plot windows can be used to
show multiple results simultaneously. A special case is the Convergence Plot
window, an automatically generated Plot window that displays a graphical
indication of the convergence of the solution process while a model is running.
Information Windows
These are the windows for non-graphical information. They include:
Messages: Various information about the current COMSOL session is

displayed in this window.

Progress: Progress information from the solver in addition to stop buttons.
Log: Information from the solver such as number of degrees of freedom,

solution time, and solver iteration data.

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 Table: Numerical data in table format as defined in the Results branch.

External Process: Provides a control panel for cluster, cloud, and batch jobs.

Other Windows
Add Material and the Material Browser: Access the material property

libraries. The Material Browser enables editing of material properties.

Selection List: A list of geometry objects, domains, boundaries, edges, and

points that are currently available for selection.

The Windows drop-down list in the Home tab of the ribbon gives you access
to all COMSOL Desktop windows. (On OS X and Linux, you will find this in
the Windows menu.)
Progress Bar with Cancel Button
The Progress Bar with a button for canceling the current computation, if any, is
located in the lower right-hand corner of the COMSOL Desktop interface.
Dynamic Help
The Help window provides context-dependent help texts about windows and
model tree nodes. If you have the Help window open in your desktop (by typing
F1, for example), you will get dynamic help (in English only) when you click a
node or a window. From the Help window you can search for other topics such
as menu items.

10 |

Prefe re n c es
Preferences are settings that affect the modeling environment. Most are persistent
between modeling sessions, but some are saved with the model. You access
Preferences from the File menu.

In the Preferences window, you can change settings such as graphics rendering,
number of displayed digits for results, maximum number of CPU cores used for
computations, or paths to user-defined application libraries. Take a moment to
browse your current settings to familiarize yourself with the different options.
There are three graphics rendering options available: OpenGL, DirectX, and
Software Rendering. DirectX is not available in OS X or Linux, but is available
in Windows if you choose to install the DirectX runtime libraries during
installation. If your computer does not have a dedicated graphics card, you may
have to switch to Software Rendering for slower but fully functional graphics. A
list of recommended graphics cards can be found at:
www.comsol.com/system-requirements

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Cre a t ing a New M ode l

You can set up a model guided by the Model Wizard or start from a Blank Model
as shown in the figure below.

C REATING

M ODEL G UIDED

BY THE

M ODEL W IZARD

The Model Wizard will guide you in setting up the space dimension, physics, and
study type in a few steps:
1 Start by selecting the space dimension for your model component: 3D, 2D
Axisymmetric, 2D, 1D Axisymmetric, or 0D.

2 Now, add one or more physics interfaces. These are organized in a number of
Physics branches in order to make them easy to locate. These branches do not
directly correspond to products. When products are added to your COMSOL

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Multiphysics installation, one or more branches will be populated with

additional physics interfaces.

3 Select the Study type that represents the solver or set of solvers that will be used
for the computation.

Finally, click Done. The desktop is now displayed with the model tree
configured according to the choices you made in the Model Wizard.

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C REATING

B LANK M ODEL

The Blank Model option will open the COMSOL Desktop interface without any
Component or Study. You can right-click the model tree to add a Component of
a certain space dimension, a physics interface, or a Study.

The Ribb on and Quick Access Toolbar

The ribbon tabs in the COMSOL Desktop environment reflect the modeling
workflow and give an overview of the functionality available for each modeling
step, including building simulation applications from your models.

The Home tab contains buttons for the most common operations for making
changes to a model, running simulations, and for building and testing
applications. Examples include changing model parameters for a parameterized
geometry, reviewing material properties and physics, building the mesh, running
a study, and visualizing the simulation results.
There are standard tabs for each of the main steps in the modeling process. These
are ordered from left to right according to the workflow: Definitions, Geometry,
Materials, Physics, Mesh, Study, and Results.
Contextual tabs are shown only if and when they are needed, such as the 3D Plot
Group tab, which is shown when the corresponding plot group is added or when
the node is selected in the model tree.

Modal tabs are used for very specific operations, when other operations in the
ribbon may become temporarily irrelevant. An example is the Work Plane modal
tab. When working with Work Planes, other tabs are not shown since they do not
present relevant operations.

T HE R IBBON

VS .

T HE M ODEL B UILDER

The ribbon gives quick access to available commands and complements the model
tree in the Model Builder window. Most of the functionality accessed from the

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ribbon is also accessible from contextual menus by right-clicking nodes in the

model tree. Certain operations are only available from the ribbon, such as selecting
which desktop window to display. In the COMSOL Desktop interface for OS X
and Linux, this functionality is available from toolbars, which replace the ribbon
on these platforms. There are also operations that are only available from the
model tree, such as reordering and disabling nodes.

T HE Q UICK A CCESS TOOLBAR

The Quick Access Toolbar contains a set of commands that are independent of the
ribbon tab that is currently displayed. You can customize the Quick Access
Toolbar; you can add most commands available in the File menu, commands for
undoing and redoing recent actions, for copying, pasting, duplicating, and
deleting nodes in the model tree. You can also choose to position the Quick
Access Toolbar above or below the ribbon.

OS X

AND

L INUX

In the COMSOL Desktop environment for OS X and Linux, the ribbon is

replaced by a set of menus and toolbars:

The instructions in this book are based on the Windows version of the COMSOL
Desktop environment. However, running COMSOL in OS X and Linux is very
similar, keeping in mind that ribbon user interface components can instead be
found in the corresponding menus and toolbars.

T h e M o d e l B u i l d e r a n d t h e M o d e l Tre e
The Model Builder is the tool where you define the model and its components:
how to solve it, the analysis of results, and the reports. You do that by building a
model tree.
You build a model by starting with the default model tree, adding nodes, and
editing the node settings.
All of the nodes in the default model tree are top-level parent nodes. You can
right-click on them to see a list of child nodes, or subnodes, that you can add
beneath them. This is the means by which nodes are added to the tree.
When you click on a child node, then you will see its node settings in the Settings
window. It is here that you can edit node settings.

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It is worth noting that if you have the Help window open (which is achieved either
by selecting Help from the File menu, or by pressing the function key F1), then
you will also get dynamic help (in English only) when you click on a node.

T HE R OOT , G LOBAL D EFINITIONS ,

AND

R ESULTS N ODES

A model tree always has a root node (initially

labeled Untitled.mph), a Global Definitions
node, and a Results node. The label on the root
node is the name of the multiphysics model file,
or MPH file, that this model is saved to. The
root node has settings for author name, default
unit system, and more.
The Global Definitions node has a Materials
subnode by default. The Global Definitions node is where you define parameters,
variables, functions, and couplings that can be used throughout the model tree.
They can be used, for example, to define the values and functional dependencies
of material properties, forces, geometry, and other relevant features. The Global
Definitions node itself has no settings, but its child nodes have plenty of them. The
Global Definitions>Materials node stores material properties that can be
referenced in the Component nodes of a model.
The Results node is where you access the solution after performing a simulation
and where you find tools for processing the data. The Results node initially has
five subnodes:
Data Sets, which contain a list of solutions

you can work with.

Derived Values, which defines values to be

derived from the solution using a number

of postprocessing tools.
Tables, which is a convenient destination

for the Derived Values or for Results

generated by probes that monitor the
solution in real-time while the simulation is
running.
Export, which defines numerical data,

images, and animations to be exported to files.

Reports, which contains automatically generated or custom reports about

the model in HTML or Microsoft Word format.

To these five default subnodes, you may also add more Plot Group subnodes that
define graphs to be displayed in the Graphics window or in Plot windows. Some

16 |

of these may be created automatically, depending on the type of simulations you

are performing, but you may include additional figures by right-clicking on the
Results node and choosing from the list of plot types.

T HE C OMPONENT

AND

S TUDY N ODES

In addition to the three nodes just described,

there are two additional top-level node types:
Component nodes and Study nodes. These are
usually created by the Model Wizard when you
create a new model. After using the Model
Wizard to specify what type of physics you are
modeling and what type of Study (e.g.,
steady-state, time-dependent,
frequency-domain, or eigenfrequency analysis) you will carry out, the Wizard
automatically creates one node of each type and shows you their contents.
It is also possible to add more
Component and Study nodes as you
develop the model. A model can
contain multiple Component and
Study nodes and it would be
confusing if they all had the same
name. Therefore, these types of
nodes can be renamed to be
descriptive of their individual
purposes.
If a model has multiple Component
nodes, they can be coupled to form a
more sophisticated sequence of
simulation steps.
Note that each Study node may carry
out a different type of computation,
so each one has a separate Compute
button .

Keyboard Shortcuts

To be more specific, suppose that you build a model that simulates a coil assembly
that is made up of two parts, a coil and a coil housing. You can create two
Component nodes, one that models the coil and the other the coil housing. You
can then rename each of the nodes with the name of the object. Similarly, you can
also create two Study nodes, the first simulating the stationary or steady-state
behavior of the assembly, and the second simulating the frequency response. You
can rename these two nodes to be Stationary and Frequency Domain. When the

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model is complete, save it to a file named Coil Assembly.mph. At that point, the
model tree in the Model Builder looks like the figure below.
In this figure, the root node is named Coil
Assembly.mph, indicating the file in which the
model is saved. The Global Definitions node
and the Results node each have their default
name. Additionally, there are two Component
nodes and two Study nodes with the names
chosen in the previous paragraph.

P ARAMETERS , VARIABLES ,

AND

S COPE

Parameters
Parameters are user-defined constant scalars that are usable throughout the model.
That is to say, they are global in nature. Important uses are:
Parameterizing geometric dimensions.
Specifying mesh element sizes.
Defining parametric sweeps (that is, simulations that are repeated for a

variety of different values of a parameter such as a frequency or a load).

A parameter expression can contain numbers, parameters, built-in constants,
built-in functions with parameter expressions as arguments, and unary and binary
operators. For a list of available operators, see Appendix CLanguage Elements
and Reserved Names on page 139. Because these expressions are evaluated
before a simulation begins, parameters may not depend on the time variable t.
Likewise, they may not depend on spatial variables like x, y, or z, nor on the
dependent variables that your equations are solving for.
It is important to know that the names of parameters are case sensitive.

18 |

You define Parameters in the model tree under Global Definitions.

Variables
Variables can be defined either in the Global Definitions node or in the Definitions
subnode of any Component node. Naturally, the choice of where to define the
variable depends on whether you want it to be global (that is, usable throughout
the model tree) or locally defined within a single Component node. Like a
Parameter Expression, a Variable Expression may contain numbers, parameters,
built-in constants, and unary and binary operators. However, it may also contain
Variables like t, x, y, or z; functions with Variable Expressions as arguments; and
dependent variables that you are solving for in addition to their space and time
derivatives.

Variables Used in Applications

Model parameters and variables can be used in applications. For example, you can
let the user of an application change the value of a parameter. In addition, variables
to be used in applications can be defined in the Application Builder under the
Declarations node.

Scope
The scope of a Parameter or Variable is a statement about where it may be used
in an expression. All Parameters are defined in the Global Definitions node of the
model tree. This means that they are global in scope and can be used throughout
the model tree.

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A Variable may also be defined in the Global Definitions node and have global
scope, but they are subject to other limitations. For example, Variables may not
be used in Geometry, Mesh, or Study nodes (with the one exception that a
Variable may be used in an expression that determines when the simulation should
stop).
A Variable that is defined, instead, in the Definitions subnode of a Component
node has local scope and is intended for use in that particular Component (but,
again, not in Geometry or Mesh nodes). They may be used, for example, to specify
material properties in the Materials subnode of a Component or to specify
boundary conditions or interactions. It is sometimes valuable to limit the scope of
the variable to only a certain part of the geometry, such as certain boundaries. For
that purpose, provisions are available in the settings for a Variable to select
whether to apply the definition either to the entire geometry of the Component,
or only to certain Domains, Boundaries, Edges, or Points.
The picture below shows the definition of two Variables, q_pin and R, for which
the scope is limited to just two boundaries identified by numbers 15 and 19.

20 |

Such Selections can be named and then referenced elsewhere in a model, such as
when defining material properties or boundary conditions that will use the
Variable. To give a name to the Selection, click the Create Selection button ( )
to the right of the Selection list.
Although Variables defined in the Definitions subnode of a Component node are
intended to have local scope, they can still be accessed outside of the Component
node in the model tree by being sufficiently specific about their identity. This is
done by using a dot-notation where the Variable name is preceded by the name
of the Component node in which it is defined and they are joined by a dot. In
other words, if a Variable named foo is defined in a Component node named
MyModel, then this variable may be accessed outside of the Component node by
using MyModel.foo. This can be useful, for example, when you want to use the
variable to make plots in the Results node. Variables defined under the
Declarations node in the Application Builder are available globally in form objects
and methods but cannot be used in the Model Builder.

B u i l t - I n C o n s t a n t s , Var i a bl e s , a n d F u n c t i o n s
COMSOL Multiphysics comes with many built-in constants, variables, and
functions. They have reserved names that cannot be redefined by the user. If you
use a reserved name for a user-defined variable, parameter, or function, the text
you enter will turn orange (a warning) or red (an error) and you will get a tooltip
message if you select the text string.
Some important examples are:
Mathematical constants such as pi (3.14...) or the imaginary unit i or j
Physical constants such as g_const (acceleration of gravity), c_const (speed
of light), or R_const (universal gas constant)
The time variable, t
First-and-second-order derivatives of the Dependent variables (the solution)

whose names are derived from the spatial coordinate names and Dependent
variable names (which are user-defined variables)
Mathematical functions such as cos, sin, exp, log, log10, and sqrt

See Appendix CLanguage Elements and Reserved Names on page 139 for
more information.

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B u i l d i n g a n d D e s i g n i n g S i mu l a t i o n A p p l i c a t i o n s
To create an application based on your model, use
the Application Builder, accessible from the Home
tab in the ribbon. For more information on
creating a COMSOL application, refer to the
Introduction to Application Builder.

The Application Libraries

The Application Libraries are collections of MPH files containing tutorial models
and runnable applications with accompanying documentation. Tutorial models
have documentation that includes the theoretical background and step-by-step
instructions. Runnable applications have instructions on how to use the
application. You can readily edit all tutorial models and applications to make them
your own. Each physics-based add-on module comes with its own application
library with examples specific to its applications and physics area. You can use the
step-by-step instructions and the MPH files as a template for your own modeling.
To open the Application Libraries window, on the Home toolbar, Windows menu

22 |

select Application Libraries

or select File>Application Libraries
and then
search by application name or browse under a module folder name.

Click Open Application

, Run Application
, or Open PDF Document
Alternatively, select File>Help>Documentation in COMSOL Multiphysics to
search by application name or browse by module.

The MPH files in the COMSOL Application Library can have two formatsFull
MPH files or Compact MPH files:
Full MPH files, including all meshes and solutions. In the Application

Libraries window, these appear with the

icon or for runnable
applications, this icon
. If the MPH files size exceeds 25MB, a tip with
the text Large file and the file size appears when you position the cursor
at the models node in the Application Libraries tree.
Compact MPH files with all settings for the model but without built meshes

and solution data to save space on the DVD (a few MPH files have no
solutions for other reasons). You can open these to study the settings and to
mesh and re-solve the applications. It is also possible to download the full
versionswith meshes and solutionsof most of these when you update
your Application Library. These appear in the Application Libraries window
with the
icon and for runnable applications, this icon
. If you position

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the cursor at a compact file in the Application Libraries window, a No

solutions stored message appears. If a full MPH file is available for
download, the corresponding nodes context menu includes a Download
File with Solutions
option.
The Application Libraries are updated on a regular basis by COMSOL. To check
all available updates, select Update COMSOL Application Library
from the
File>Help menu (Windows users) or from the Help menu (OS X and Linux
users). This connects you to the COMSOL website where you can access new
applications and the latest updates.
The following spread shows an example of a customized desktop with additional
windows.

24 |

RIBBON
QUICK ACCESS
TOOLBAR

MODEL BUILDER
WINDOW

MODEL TREE

SETTINGS WINDOW

PLOT WINDOWThe Plot window is used to visualize Results

quantities, probes, and convergence plots. Several Plot windows
can be used to show multiple results simultaneously.

| 25

GRAPHICS WINDOW

DYNAMIC HELPContinuously updated with online access

to the Knowledge Base and Model Gallery. The Help window
enables easy browsing with extended search functionality.

INFORMATION WINDOWS

PROGRESS BAR WITH CANCEL BUTTON

26 |

Wor k f l ow a n d S e q u e n c e o f O p e r a t i o n s
In the Model Builder window, every step of the modeling process, from defining
global variables to the final report of results, is displayed in the model tree.

From top to bottom, the model tree defines an orderly sequence of operations.
In the following branches of the model tree, the node order makes a difference
and you can change the sequence of operations by moving the subnodes up or
down the model tree:
Geometry
Materials
Physics

| 27

 Mesh
Study
Plot Groups

In the Component Definitions branch of the tree, the ordering of the following
node types also makes a difference:
Perfectly Matched Layer
Infinite Elements

Nodes may be reordered by these methods:

Drag-and-drop
Right-clicking the node and selecting Move Up or Move Down
Pressing Ctrl + up-arrow or Ctrl + down-arrow

In other branches, the ordering of nodes is not significant with respect to the
sequence of operations, but some nodes can be reordered for readability. Child
nodes to Global Definitions is one such example.
You can view the sequence of operations presented as program code statements by
saving the model as a model file for MATLAB or as a model file for Java after
having selected Compact History in the File menu. Note that the model history
keeps a complete record of the changes you make to a model as you build it. As
such, it includes all of your corrections including changes to parameters and
boundary conditions and modifications of solver methods. Compacting this
history removes all of the overridden changes and leaves a clean copy of the most
recent form of the model steps.
As you work with the COMSOL Desktop interface and the Model Builder, you
will grow to appreciate the organized and streamlined approach. But any
description of a user interface is inadequate until you try it for yourself. So, in the
next chapters, you are invited to work through two examples to familiarize
yourself with the software.

28 |

Example 1: Structural Analysis of a Wrench

This simple example requires none of the add-on products to COMSOL
Multiphysics. For more fully-featured structural mechanics models, see the
Structural Mechanics Module application library.
At some point in your life, it is likely that you have tightened a bolt using a wrench.
This exercise takes you through a structural mechanics model that analyzes this
basic task from the perspective of the structural integrity of the wrench subjected
to a worst-case loading.
The wrench is, of course, made from steel, a ductile material. If the applied torque
is too high, the tool will be permanently deformed due to the steels elastoplastic
behavior when pushed beyond its yield stress level. To analyze whether the wrench
handle is appropriately dimensioned, you will check if the mechanical stress level
is within the yield stress limit.
This tutorial gives a quick introduction to the COMSOL workflow. It starts with
opening the Model Wizard and adding a physics option for solid mechanics. Then
a geometry is imported and steel is selected as the material. You then explore the
other key steps in creating a model by defining a parameter and boundary
condition for the load, selecting geometric entities in the Graphics window,
defining the Mesh and Study, and finally examining the results numerically and
through visualization.
If you prefer to practice with a more advanced model, read this section to
familiarize yourself with some of the key features, and then go to the tutorial
Example 2: The BusbarA Multiphysics Model on page 51.

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M o d e l W i z a rd
1 To start the software, double-click the COMSOL icon on
the desktop, which will take you to the New window with
two options for creating a new model: Model Wizard or
Blank Model.
If you select Blank Model, you can right-click the root
node in the model tree to manually add a Component and
a Study. For this tutorial, click the Model Wizard button.
If COMSOL is already open, you can start the Model
Wizard by selecting New from the File menu. Choose the
Model Wizard.
The Model Wizard will guide you through the first steps of
setting up a model. The next window lets you select the
dimension of the modeling space.
2 In the Select Space Dimension window, select 3D.

3 In Select Physics, select Structural

Mechanics > Solid Mechanics
(solid) . Click Add.
Without add-on modules, Solid
Mechanics is the only physics interface
available in the Structural Mechanics
folder. In the picture to the right, the
Structural Mechanics folder is shown as
it appears when all add-on modules are
available.
Click Study

30 |

to continue.

4 Click Stationary
under Preset
Studies. Click Done
once you have
finished.
Preset Studies have solver and equation
settings adapted to the selected physics;
in this example, Solid Mechanics. A
Stationary study is used in this case
there are no time-varying loads or
material properties.
Any selection from the Custom Studies
branch
requires manual settings.

Geo metr y
This tutorial uses a geometry that was previously created and stored in the
COMSOL native CAD format,.mphbin. To learn how to build your own
geometry, see Appendix ABuilding a Geometry on page 120.

File Locations
The location of the application library that contains the file used in this exercise
varies based on the software installation and operating system. In Windows, the
file path will be similar to:
C:\Program Files\COMSOL\COMSOL51\Multiphysics\applications.

| 31

1 In the Model Builder window, under Component 1, right-click Geometry 1

and select Import .

As an alternative, you can use the ribbon and click Import

Geometry tab.

from the

2 In the Settings window for Import, from the Geometry import list, select
COMSOL Multiphysics file.

3 Click Browse and locate the file wrench.mphbin in the application library
folder of the COMSOL installation folder. Its default location in Windows is
C:\Program
Files\COMSOL\COMSOL51\Multiphysics\applications\COMSOL_Multiphysics\
Structural_Mechanics\wrench.mphbin

Double-click to add or click Open.

32 |

4 Click Import to display the geometry in the Graphics window.

Rotate: Click and drag

Pan: Right-click and drag

5 Click the wrench geometry in the Graphics window and then experiment with
moving it around. As you point to or click the geometry, it changes color. Click
the Zoom In , Zoom Out , Go to Default 3D View , Zoom Extents ,
and Transparency
buttons on the Graphics window toolbar to see what
happens to the geometry:
- To rotate, click and drag anywhere in the Graphics window.
- To move, right-click and drag.
- To zoom in and out, click the mouse scroll wheel, continue holding it, and

drag.
- To get back to the original position, click the Go to Default 3D View

button on the toolbar.

Also see Appendix BKeyboard and Mouse Shortcuts on page 135 for
additional information.
The imported model has two parts, or domains, corresponding to the bolt and the
wrench. In this exercise, the focus will be on analyzing the stress in the wrench.

| 33

Mate rials
The Materials node stores the material properties for all physics and all domains
in a Component node. Use the same generic steel material for both the bolt and
tool. Here is how to choose it in COMSOL.
1 Open the Add Materials window.
You can open the Add Materials
window in either of these two ways:
- Right-click Component 1>Materials

in the Model Builder and select

Add Material
- From the ribbon, select the Home

tab and then click Add Material.

2 In the Add Material window, click to
expand the Built-In directory. Scroll
down to find Structural steel,
right-click, and select Add to
Component 1.
3 Examine the Material Contents
section in the Settings window for
Material to see the properties that are
available. Properties with green check
marks are used by the physics in the
simulation.
4 Close the Add Material window.

Also see the busbar tutorial sections Materials on page 59 and

Customizing Materials on page 82 to learn more about working with
materials.

34 |

Global Definitions
You will now define a global parameter specifying the load applied to the wrench.

Parameters
1 In the Model Builder, right-click Global Definitions
Parameters .

and choose

2 Go to the Settings window for Parameters. Under Parameters in the Parameters

table or in the fields below the table, enter these settings:
- In the Name column or field, enter F.
- In the Expression column or field, enter 150[N]. The square-bracket

notation is used to associate a physical unit to a numerical value, in this case

the unit of force in Newtons. The Value column is automatically updated
based on the expression entered once you leave the field or press Return.
- In the Description column or
field, enter Applied force.

If you have a Parameters table with more than one entry, you can sort the
table with respect to a particular column by clicking on the corresponding
header.
The sections Global Definitions on page 55 and Parameters, Functions,
Variables and Couplings on page 78 show you more about working with
parameters.

| 35

So far you have added the physics and

study, imported a geometry, added the
material, and defined one parameter. The
Model Builder node sequence should
now match the figure to the right. The
default feature nodes under Solid
Mechanics are indicated by a D in the
upper-left corner of the node icon .
The default nodes for Solid Mechanics
are: a Linear Elastic Material model, Free
boundary conditions that allow all
boundaries to move freely without a
constraint or load, and Initial Values for
specifying initial displacement and
velocity values for a nonlinear or transient
analysis (not applicable in this case).
At any time, you can save your model and
then open it later in exactly the state in
which it was saved.
3 From the File Menu, select File > Save
As. Browse to a folder where you have
write permissions, and save the file as
wrench.mph.

36 |

D o m a i n P hy s i c s a n d B o u n d a r y C o n d i t i o n s
With the geometry and materials defined, you are now ready to set the boundary
conditions.
1 In the Model Builder, right-click
Solid Mechanics (solid)
and
select Fixed Constraint .
This boundary condition
constrains the displacement of each
point on a boundary surface to be
zero in all directions.
You can also use the ribbon and
select, from the Physics tab,
Boundaries > Fixed Constraint.

2 In the Graphics window, rotate

the geometry by clicking
anywhere in the window and then
dragging the wrench into the
position shown. Click on the
exposed front surface of the
partially modeled bolt. The
boundary turns blue indicating
that it has been selected. The
Boundary number in the
Selection list should be 35.
3 Click the Go to Default 3D View
button
on the Graphics toolbar to restore the geometry to the default view.

| 37

4 In the Model Builder, right-click Solid Mechanics (solid)

and select
Boundary Load. A Boundary Load node
is added to the Model Builder
sequence.

5 In the Graphics window, click the

Zoom Box button
on the
toolbar and drag the mouse to
select the square region shown in
the figure to the right. Release
the mouse button to zoom in on
the selected region.

6 Select the top socket face

(Boundary 111) by clicking the
boundary to highlight it in blue
and add it to the Selection list.

38 |

7 In the Settings window for

Boundary Load, under Force,
select Total force as the Load type
and enter -F in the text field for
the z component. The negative
sign indicates the negative
z direction (downward). With
these settings, the load of 150 N
will be distributed uniformly across the selected surface.
Note that to simplify the modeling process, the mechanical contact between the
bolt and the wrench is approximated with a material interface boundary
condition. Such an internal boundary condition is automatically defined by
COMSOL and guarantees continuity in normal stress and displacement across
a material interface. A more detailed analysis including mechanical contact can
be done with the Structural Mechanics Module.

Me sh
The mesh settings determine the resolution of the finite element mesh used to
discretize the model. The finite element method divides the model into small
elements of geometrically simple shapes, in this case tetrahedrons. In each
tetrahedron, a set of polynomial functions is used to approximate the structural
displacement fieldhow much the object deforms in each of the three coordinate
directions.
In this example, because the geometry contains small edges and faces, you will
define a slightly finer mesh than the default setting suggests. This will better
resolve the variations of the stress field and give a more accurate result. Refining
the mesh size to improve computational accuracy always involves some sacrifice in
speed and typically requires increased memory usage.
1 In the Model Builder, under Component 1 click Mesh 1 . In the Settings
window for Mesh, under Mesh Settings, select Fine from the Element size list.

2 Click the Build All button

in the Settings window or on the Mesh toolbar.

| 39

3 After a few seconds the mesh is displayed in the Graphics window. Rotate the
wrench to take a look at the element size distribution.

Study
In the beginning of setting up the model you selected a Stationary study, which
implies that COMSOL will use a stationary solver. For this to be applicable, the
assumption is that the load, deformation, and stress do not vary in time. The
default solver settings will be good for this simulation if your computer has more
than 2 GB of in-core memory (RAM). If you should run out of memory, the
instructions below show solver settings that make the solver run a bit slower but
use up less memory. To start the solver:
1 Right-click Study 1
and select
Compute
(or press F8).

40 |

If your computers memory is below 2 GB you may at this point get an

error message Out of Memory During LU Factorization. LU
factorization is one of the numerical methods used by COMSOL for
solving the large sparse matrix equation system generated by the finite
element method.
You can easily solve this example model on a memory-limited machine by allowing
the solver to use the hard drive instead of performing all of the computation using
RAM. The steps below show how to do this. If your computer has more than
2 GB of RAM you can skip to the end of this section (after step 5 below).
1 If you did not already start the computation, you can access the solver settings
from the Study node. In the Model Builder, right-click Study 1
and choose
Show Default Solver .
2 Under Study 1>Solver Configurations,
expand the Solution 1
node.
3 Expand the Stationary Solver 1
click Direct .

node and

A Direct solver is a fast and very robust type

of solver that requires little or no manual
tuning in order to solve a wide range of
physics problems. The drawback is that it may
require large amounts of RAM.
4 In the Settings window for Direct,
in the General section, select the
Out-of-core check box. Change
the In-core memory method to
Manual. Leave the default In-core
memory (MB) setting of 512 MB.
This setting ensures that if your
computer runs low on RAM
during computation, the solver will
start using the hard drive as a
complement to RAM. Allowing
the solver to use the hard drive
instead of just RAM will slow the
computation down somewhat.
5 Right-click Study 1
and select
Compute
(or press F8).
After a few seconds of computation
time, the default plot is displayed in

| 41

the Graphics window. You can find other useful information about the
computation in the Messages and Log windows; click the Messages and Log tabs
under the Graphics window to see the kind of information available to you. The
Messages window can also be opened from the Windows drop-down list in the
Home tab of the ribbon.

Disp laying Results

The von Mises stress is displayed in the Graphics window in a default Surface plot
with the displacement visualized using a Deformation subnode. Change the
default unit (N/m2) to the more suitable MPa as shown in the following steps.
1 In the Model Builder, expand the Results>Stress
(solid)
node, then click Surface 1 .

42 |

2 In the Settings window under

Expression, from the Unit list
select MPa (or type MPa in the
field).

To study the stress more accurately,

expand the Quality section. From the
Recover list select Within domains. This
setting will recover information about
the stress level from a collection of
elements rather than from each element
individually. It is not active by default since it makes visualizations
slower. The Within domain setting treats each domain separately, and
the stress recovery will not cross material interfaces.
3 Click the Plot button on the toolbar of the Settings window for the Surface
plot and then click the Go to Default 3D View button
on the Graphics
window toolbar.
The plot is regenerated with the updated unit and using the Within domain
recovery setting. The von Mises stress distribution is shown in the bolt and
wrench under an applied vertical load.

| 43

For a typical steel used for tools like a wrench, the yield stress is about 600 MPa,
which means that we are getting close to plastic deformation for our 150 N load
(which corresponds to about 34 pounds force). You may also be interested in a
safety margin of, say, a factor of three. To quickly assess which parts of the wrench
are at risk of plastic deformation, you can plot an inequality expression such as
solid.mises>200[MPa].
1 Right-click the Results node

and add a 3D Plot Group

2 Right-click the 3D Plot Group 2 node

and select Surface

.
.

3 In the Settings window for Surface,

click the Replace Expression button
and select Model>Component1>Solid
Mechanics>Stress>solid.mises-von
Mises stress by double-clicking. When
you know the variable name
beforehand, you can also directly enter
solid.mises in the Expression field.
Now edit this expression to:
solid.mises>200[MPa].
This is a boolean expression that evaluates to either 1, for true, or 0, for false.
In areas where the expression evaluates to 1, the safety margin is exceeded.
Here, you also use the Recover feature described earlier.
4 Click the Plot button

5 In the Model Builder, click 3D Plot Group 2. Press F2 and in the Rename 3D
Plot Group dialog box, enter Safety Margin. Click OK.
The resulting plot shows that the stress in the bolt is high, but the focus of this
exercise is on the wrench. If you wished to comfortably certify the wrench for a

44 |

150 N load with a factor-of-three safety margin, you would need to change the
handle design somewhat, such as making it wider.

You may have noticed that the manufacturer, for various reasons, has chosen an
asymmetric design for the wrench. Because of that, the stress field may be
different if the wrench is flipped around. Try now, on your own, to apply the
same force in the other direction and visualize the maximum von Mises stress to
see if there is any difference.

Conver gence Analysis

To check the accuracy of the computed maximum von Mises stress in the wrench,
you can now continue with a mesh convergence analysis. Do that by using a finer
mesh and therefore a higher number of degrees of freedom (DOFs).
This section illustrates some more in-depth functionality and the steps
below could be skipped at a first reading. In order to run the convergence
analysis below, a computer with at least 4GB of memory (RAM) is
recommended.

E VALUATING

THE

M AXIMUM

VON

M ISES S TRESS

1 To study the maximum von Mises stress in the wrench, in the Results section of
the model tree, right-click the Derived Values
node and select
Maximum>Volume Maximum .

| 45

2 In the Settings window for Volume Maximum, under Selection, choose Manual
and select the wrench, domain 1, by clicking on the wrench in the Graphics
window. We will only consider values in the wrench domain and neglect those
in the bolt.
3 In the Expression text field enter the function ppr(solid.mises). The
function ppr() corresponds to the Recover setting in the earlier note on page
43 for Surface plots. The Recover setting with the ppr function is used to
increase the quality of the stress field results. It uses a polynomial-preserving
recovery (ppr) algorithm, which is a higher-order interpolation of the solution
on a patch of mesh elements around each mesh vertex. It is not active by default
since it makes Results evaluations slower.
4 Under Expression, select or enter MPa as the Unit.
5 In the Settings window for Volume
Maximum, click Evaluate to
evaluate the maximum stress. The
result will be displayed in a Table
window and will be approximately
364 MPa.
6 To see where the maximum value is attained, you can use a Max/Min Volume
plot. Right-click the Results node
and add a 3D Plot Group .
7 Right-click the 3D Plot Group 3 node
Volume .

and select More Plots>Max/Min

8 In the Settings window for Max/Min Volume, in the Expression text field,
enter the function ppr(solid.mises).
9 In the Settings window under Expression, from the Unit list select MPa (or
enter MPa in the field).

46 |

10Click the Plot button . This type of plot simultaneously shows the location of
the max and min values and also their coordinate location in the table below.

P ARAMETERIZING

THE

M ESH

We will now define a parametric sweep for successively refining the mesh size while
solving and then finally plot the maximum von Mises stress vs. mesh size. First,
lets define the parameters that will be used for controlling the mesh density.
1 In the Model Builder, click Parameters

under Global Definitions

2 Go to the Settings window for Parameters. In the Parameters table (or under
the table in the fields), enter these settings:
- In the Name column or field, enter hd. This parameter will be used in the

parametric sweep to control the element size.

- In the Expression column or field, enter 1.
- In the Description column or field, enter Element size divider.

| 47

3 Now, enter another parameter with

Name h0, Expression 0.01, and
Description Starting element
size. This parameter will be used to
define the element size at the start of
the parametric sweep.
4 In the Model Builder, under
Component 1, click Mesh 1 . In the Settings window for Mesh select
User-controlled mesh from the Sequence type list.
5 Under Mesh 1, click the Size node

6 In the Settings window for Size, under

Element Size, click the Custom button.
Under Element Size Parameters, enter:
- h0/hd in the Maximum element size field.
- h0/(4*hd) in the Minimum element size

field.
- 1.3 in the Maximum element growth rate

field.
- 0.1 in the Curvature factor field.
- 0.2 in the Resolution of narrow regions

field.
See page 69 for more information on the Element Size Parameters.

P ARAMETRIC S WEEP

AND

S OLVER S ETTINGS

As a next step, add a parametric sweep for the parameter hd.

1 In the Model Builder, right-click Study 1 and select
Parametric Sweep . A Parametric Sweep node is
added to the Model Builder sequence.
2 In the Settings window for Parametric Sweep, under
the table in the Study Settings section, click the Add button
Parameter names list in the table, select hd.

48 |

. From the

3 Enter a range of Parameter values to sweep

for. Click the Range
button and enter
the values in the Range dialog box. In the
Start field, enter 1. In the Step field, enter
1, and in the Stop field, enter 6. Click
Replace. The Parameter value list will now
display range(1,1,6).
The settings above make sure that as the
sweep progresses, the value of the
parameter hd increases and the maximum and minimum element sizes decrease.
See page 107 for more information on defining parametric sweeps.
For the highest value of hd, the number of DOFs will exceed one million.
Therefore, we will switch to a more memory-efficient iterative solver.
4 Under Study 1>Solver Configurations>Solution 1, expand the Stationary
Solver 1 node, right-click Stationary Solver 1 , and select Iterative . The
Iterative solver option typically reduces memory usage but can require
physics-specific tailoring of the solver settings for efficient computations.
5 Under General in the Settings window for Iterative, set Preconditioning to
Right. (This is a low-level solver option, which in this case will suppress a
warning message that would otherwise appear. However, this setting does not
affect the resulting solution. Preconditioning is a mathematical transformation
used to prepare the finite element equation system for using the Iterative
solver.)
6 Right-click the Iterative 1 node
and select Multigrid . The Multigrid
iterative solver uses a hierarchy of meshes of different densities and different
finite element shape function orders.
7 Click the Study 1 node and select Compute , either in the Settings window
or by right-clicking the node. You can also click Compute in the ribbon Home
or Study tab. The computation time will be a few minutes (depending on the
computer hardware) and memory usage will be about 4GB.

R ESULTS A NALYSIS
As a final step, analyze the results from the parametric sweep by displaying the
maximum von Mises stress in a Table.
1 In the Model Builder under Results>Derived values, select the Volume
Maximum 1 node .
The solutions from the parametric sweep are stored in a new Data Set named
Study 1/Parametric Solutions 1. Now change the Volume Maximum settings
accordingly:

| 49

2 In the Settings window for Volume Maximum, change the Data set to Study
1/Parametric Solutions 1.
3 Click the arrow next to the Evaluate button at the top of
the Settings window for Volume Maximum and select to
evaluate in a New Table. This evaluation may take a
minute or so.
4 To plot the results in the Table, click the Table Graph
button at the top of the Table window.
It is more interesting to plot the maximum value vs. the
number of DOFs. This is possible by using a built-in variable numberofdofs.
5 Right-click the Derived Values node

and select Global Evaluation

6 In the Settings window for Global Evaluation, change the Data set to Study
1/Parametric Solutions 1.
7 In the Expressions field, enter numberofdofs.
8 Click the arrow next to the Evaluate button in the Settings window for Global
Evaluation and select to evaluate in Table 2. This displays the DOF values for
each parameter next to the previously evaluated data.
This convergence analysis shows that the computed value of the maximum von
Mises stress in the wrench handle will increase from the original 355 MPa, for a
mesh with about 60,000 DOFs, to 370 MPa for a mesh with about 1,100,000
DOFs. It also shows that 300,000 DOFs essentially gives the same accuracy as
1,100,000 DOFs; see the table below.
DEGREES OF FREEDOM

COMPUTED MAX VON

MISES STRESS (MPA)

58,899

354.8

177,918

364.3

314,181

368.5

585,849

369.0

862,509

369.6

1,126,380

369.8

This concludes the wrench tutorial.

50 |

Example 2: The BusbarA Multiphysics Model

Electrical Heating in a Busbar
This tutorial demonstrates the concept of multiphysics modeling in COMSOL.
We will do this by defining the different physics settings sequentially. At the end,
you will have built a truly multiphysics model.
The model that you are about to create analyzes a busbar designed to conduct
direct current to an electrical device (see picture below). The current conducted
in the busbar, from bolt 1 to bolts 2a and 2b, produces heat due to the resistive
losses, a phenomenon referred to as Joule heating. The busbar is made of copper
while the bolts are made of a titanium alloy. Under normal operational conditions
the currents are predominantly conducted through the copper. This example,
however, illustrates the effects of an unwanted electrical loading of the busbar
through the bolts. The choice of materials is important because titanium has a
lower electrical conductivity than copper and will be subjected to a higher current
density.
Titanium Bolt 2a

Titanium Bolt 2b

Titanium Bolt 1

The goal of your simulation is to precisely calculate how much the busbar heats
up. Once you have captured the basic multiphysics phenomena, you will have the
chance to investigate thermal expansion yielding structural stresses and strains in
the busbar and the effects of cooling by an air stream.
The Joule heating effect is described by conservation laws for electric current and
energy. Once solved for, the two conservation laws give the temperature and
electric field, respectively. All surfaces, except the bolt contact surfaces, are cooled
by natural convection in the air surrounding the busbar. You can assume that the
exposed parts of the bolt do not contribute to the cooling or heating of the device.

| 51

The electric potential at the upper-right vertical bolt surface is 20 mV and the
potential at the two horizontal surfaces of the lower bolts is 0 V. This corresponds
to a relatively high and potentially unsafe loading of this type of busbar. More
advanced boundary conditions for electromagnetics analysis are available with the
AC/DC Module, such as the capability to give the total current on a boundary.

Busbar Model Overview

More in-depth and advanced topics included in this tutorial are used to show you
some of the many options available in COMSOL. The following topics are
covered:
Parameters, Functions, Variables and Couplings on page 78, where you

learn how to define functions and component couplings.

Material Properties and Material Libraries on page 82 shows you how to

customize a material and add it to your own material library.

Adding Meshes on page 84 gives you the opportunity to add and define

two different meshes and compare them in the Graphics window.

Adding Physics on page 86 explores the multiphysics capabilities by

adding Solid Mechanics and Laminar Flow to the busbar model.

Parametric Sweeps on page 107 shows you how to vary the width of the

busbar using a parameter and then solve for a range of parameter values. The
result is a plot of the average temperature as a function of the width.
In the section Parallel Computing on page 116 you learn how to solve the

model using Cluster Computing.

M o d e l W i z a rd
1 To open the software, double-click the COMSOL icon on
the desktop.

When the software opens, click the Model Wizard button.

You can also start the Model Wizard at any time by
selecting New from the File menu. Then, choose Model
Wizard.

52 |

2 In the Select Space Dimension window, click 3D.

3 In the Select Physics window, expand

the Heat Transfer > Electromagnetic
Heating folder, then right-click Joule
Heating
and choose Add Physics.
Click the Study
button.
You can also double-click or click the
Add button to add physics.
Another way to add physics is to open
the Add Physics window by
right-clicking the Component node in
the Model Builder and selecting Add
Physics .
Note, you may have fewer items in your
physics list depending on the add-on
modules installed. The figure on the
right is shown for the case where all
add-on modules are installed.

| 53

4 In the Select Study window, click to

select the Stationary
study type.
Click the Done button.
Preset Studies are studies that have
solver and equation settings adapted to
the selected physics; in this example,
Joule Heating.
Any selection from the Custom Studies
branch
needs manual fine-tuning.
Note, you may have fewer study types in
your study list depending on the
installed add-on modules.

The Joule Heating multiphysics

interface consists of two physics
interfaces, Electric Currents and
Heat Transfer in Solids, together
with the multiphysics couplings
that appear in the Multiphysics
branch: the electromagnetic heat
sources and a temperature
coupling. This multiphysics
approach is very flexible and makes
it possible to fully use the
capabilities of the participating
physics interfaces.

54 |

Global Definitions
To save time, its recommended that you
load the geometry from a file. In that case,
you can skip to Geometry on page 56.

2 x rad_1

If, on the other hand, you want to draw the

geometry yourself, the Global Definitions
node is where you define the parameters.
First, complete steps 1 through 3 below to
define the parameter list for the model.
Then follow step 4 and skip to the section
Appendix ABuilding a Geometry on
page 120.
The Global Definitions node
in the
Model Builder stores Parameters, Variables,
wbb
and Functions with a global scope. The
L
model tree can hold several model
components simultaneously, and the
tbb
definitions with a global scope are made
available for all components. In this
particular example, there is only one Component node in which the parameters
are used, so if you wish to limit the scope to this single component you could
define, for example, Variables and Functions in the Definitions subnode available
directly under the corresponding Component node. However, no Parameters can
be defined here because Parameters are always global.
Since you will run a parametric study of the geometry later in this example, define
the geometry using parameters from the start. In this step, enter parameters for
the length of the lower part of the busbar, L, the radius of the titanium bolts,
rad_1, the thickness of the busbar, tbb, and the width of the device, wbb.
You will also add the parameters that control the mesh, mh, a heat transfer
coefficient for cooling by natural convection, htc, and a value for the voltage
across the busbar, Vtot.
1 Right-click Global Definitions and choose Parameters
table, click the first row under Name and enter L.

. In the Parameters

2 Click the first row under Expression and enter the value of L, 9[cm]. You can
enter the unit inside the square brackets.
3 Continue adding the other parameters: rad_1, tbb, wbb, mh, htc, and Vtot
according to the Parameters list below. It is a good idea to enter descriptions for

| 55

variables in case you want to share the model with others and for your own
future reference.

4 Click the Save button

on the Quick Access Toolbar and name the model
busbar.mph. Then go to Appendix ABuilding a Geometry on page 120.

Geometr y
This section describes how the geometry can be opened from the Application
Libraries. The physics, study, parameters, and geometry are included with the
model file you are about to open.
1 Select Application Libraries
from the
Windows drop down in the Home tab.

56 |

2 In the Application Libraries tree under

COMSOL Multiphysics > Multiphysics,
select busbar geom.
To open the file you can:
- Double-click the name
- Right-click and select an option from

the menu
- Click one of the buttons under the

tree
You can select No if prompted to save
untitled.mph.
The geometry in this file is
parameterized. In the next few steps, we
will experiment with different values for
the width parameter, wbb.
3 Under Global Definitions
Parameters node .

click the

In the Settings window for Parameters,

click in the Expression column for the
wbb parameter and enter 10[cm] to
change the value of the busbar width.
4 In the Model Builder, under
Component 1>Geometry 1, click the
Form Union node and then the Build
All button in the Settings window to rerun the geometry sequence. You can

| 57

also use the ribbon and click Build All from the Geometry group in the Home
tab.

5 In the Graphics toolbar click the Zoom Extents button

busbar in the Graphics window.

wbb=5cm

58 |

to see the wider

wbb=10cm

6 Experiment with the geometry in the Graphics window:

- To rotate the busbar, click and drag the pointer anywhere in the Graphics

window.
- To move it, right-click and drag.
- To zoom in and out, click the scroll wheel, continue holding it, and drag.
- To get back to the original position, click the Go to Default 3D View

button

on the toolbar.

7 Return to the Parameters table and

change the value of wbb back to 5[cm].
8 In the Model Builder, click the Form
Union node and then click the Build
All button
to rerun the geometry
sequence.
9 On the Graphics toolbar, click the
Zoom Extents button .
10If you built the geometry yourself, you
are already using the busbar.mph file, but if you opened the file from the
Application Libraries, select Save As from the File menu and rename the model
busbar.mph.
After creating or importing the geometry, it is time to define the materials.

Mate rials
The Materials node stores the material properties for all physics and geometrical
domains in a Component node. The busbar is made of copper and the bolts are
made of a titanium alloy. Both of these materials are available from the Built-In
material database.
1 In the Model Builder, right-click Component 1>Materials
and select Add
Material . By default, the window will open at the right-hand side of the
desktop. You can move the window by clicking on the window title and then

| 59

dragging it to a new location. While dragging the window, you will be presented
with several options for docking.

The Materials node will show a red in the lower-left corner if you try to
solve without first defining a material (you are about to define that in the
next few steps).
2 In the Add Material window,
expand the Built-In materials
folder and locate Copper.
Right-click Copper
and
select Add to Component 1.
A Copper node is added to the
Model Builder.
3 In the Add Material window,
scroll to Titanium beta-21S in
the Built-In material folder list.
Right-click and select Add to
Component 1.
4 In the Model Builder, collapse
the Geometry 1 node to get
an overview of the model.

60 |

5 Under the Materials node, click Copper

6 In the Settings window for Material, examine the Material Contents section.

The Material Contents section has useful information about the material
property usage of a model. Properties that are both required by the physics and
available from the material are marked with a green check mark . Properties
required by the physics but missing in the material are marked with a warning
sign . A property that is available but not used in the model is unmarked.
The Coefficient of thermal expansion in the table above is not used, but
will be needed later when heat-induced stresses and strains are added to
the model.
Because the copper material is added first, by default all parts have copper
material assigned. In the next step you will assign titanium properties to the
bolts, which overrides the copper material assignment for those parts.
7 In the Model Builder, click Titanium beta-21S

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8 Select All Domains from the Selection list and then click domain 1 in the list.
Now remove domain 1 from the selection list.
To remove a domain from the selection list (or any geometric entity such as
boundaries, edges, or points), you can use either of these two methods:
- Click domain 1 in the selection list found in the Settings window for Material,
then click the Remove from Selection button
or press Delete on your

keyboard.
- Alternatively, in the Graphics window, click domain 1 to remove it from the

selection list.

The domains 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are highlighted in blue.

62 |

To render the copper components in the actual color of the material, open
the Preferences window from the File menu. Then on the Graphics and
Plot Windows page, select the Show material color and texture check box.
This will also enable material-true rendering of the other materials.
9 In the Settings window for
Material, be sure to inspect
the Material Contents section
for the titanium material. All
the properties used by the
physics should have a green
check mark .

10Close the Add Material

window either by clicking the
icon in the upper right corner or
by clicking the Add Material
toggle button
in the
Materials group of the ribbon
Home tab.

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Physics
Next you will inspect the physics domain settings and set the boundary conditions
for the heat transfer problem and the conduction of electric current.
In the Model Builder window, examine the default physics nodes of the
multiphysics interface for Joule Heating. First, collapse the Materials node. Then
click the Electric Currents , Heat Transfer in Solids , and Multiphysics
nodes to expand them.

The D in the upper left corner of a nodes icon ( ) means it is a default node.
The equations that COMSOL solves are displayed in the Equation section of the
Settings windows of the respective physics nodes.
The default equation form is inherited from the study added in the Model Wizard.
For Joule heating, COMSOL displays the equations solved for the temperature
and electric potential.
To always display the equations in the Settings window, click the Show
button ( ) on the Model Builder toolbar and select Equation Sections so
that a check mark appears next to it.

64 |

The Heat Transfer in Solids (ht) and

Electric Currents (ec) nodes have the
settings for heat conduction and
current conduction, respectively.
Under the Electric Currents node,
the Current Conservation node
represents the conservation of electric
current at the domain level and the
Electric Insulation node contains the
default boundary condition for
Electric Currents.
Under the Heat Transfer in Solids
node, the domain level Heat Transfer
in Solids node represents the
conservation of heat and the Thermal
Insulation node contains the default
boundary condition for Heat Transfer. The heat source for Joule heating is set in
the Electromagnetic Heat Source node under the Multiphysics node. The Initial
Values node, found in both the Electric Currents and Heat Transfer in Solids
interfaces, contains initial guesses for the nonlinear solver for stationary problems
and initial conditions for time-dependent problems.
Now, define the boundary conditions.
1 Right-click the Heat Transfer in Solids node . In the second section of the
context menuthe boundary
sectionselect Heat Flux.

Domain section

Section divider

Boundary section

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2 In the Settings window for Heat

Flux, select All boundaries from the
Selection list.
Assume that the circular bolt
boundaries are neither heated nor
cooled by the surroundings.
In the next step you will remove the
selection of these boundaries from
the heat flux selection list, which
leaves them with the default insulating boundary condition for the Heat
Transfer interfaces.
3 Rotate the busbar to view the back. Move the mouse pointer over one of the
circular titanium bolt surfaces to highlight it in green. Click the bolt surface to
remove this boundary selection from the Selection list. Repeat this step to
remove the other two circular bolt surfaces from the selection list. Boundaries
8, 15, and 43 are removed.
Cross-check: Boundaries 8, 15, and 43 are removed from the
Selection list.

43
15

66 |

4 In the Settings window for Heat

Flux under Heat Flux, click the
Convective heat flux button. Enter
htc in the Heat transfer coefficient
field, h.
This parameter was either entered
in the Parameter table in Global
Definitions on page 55 or
imported with the geometry.
Continue by setting the boundary
conditions for the electric current
according to the following steps:
5 In the Model Builder, right-click the Electric Currents node . In the second
section of the context menuthe boundary sectionselect Electric Potential.
An Electric Potential
node is added to the model tree.

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6 Move the mouse pointer over the circular face of the single titanium bolt to
highlight it and then click to add it (boundary 43) to the Selection list.

43

7 In the Settings window for Electric

Potential enter Vtot in the Electric
potential field.
The last step is to set the surfaces of
the two remaining bolts to ground.
8 In the Model Builder, right-click the Electric Currents node . In the
boundary section of the context menu, select Ground. A Ground node
is
added to the Model Builder. The model tree node sequence should now match
this figure.

68 |

9 In the Graphics window, click one of the remaining bolts to add it to the
Selection list.
Cross-check: Boundaries 8 and 15.

15

Repeat this step to add the last bolt. Boundaries 8 and 15 are added to the
selection list for the Ground boundary condition.
10On the Graphics toolbar, click the Go to Default 3D View button

As an alternative to using the preconfigured multiphysics interface for

Joule heating, you can manually combine the Electric Currents and Heat
Transfer in Solids interfaces. For example, you can start by setting up and
solving the model for Electric Currents and then subsequently add Heat
Transfer in Solids. In that case, you right-click the Multiphysics node to
add the required multiphysics couplings.

Me sh
The simplest way to mesh is to create an unstructured tetrahedral mesh, which is
perfect for the busbar. Alternatively, you can create several meshing sequences as
shown in Adding Meshes on page 84.
A physics-controlled mesh is created by default. In most cases, it is possible
to skip to the Study branch and just solve the model. For this exercise, the
settings are investigated in order to parameterize the mesh settings.

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1 In the Model Builder, click the Mesh 1

node . In the Settings window for
Mesh, select User-controlled mesh from
the Sequence type list.
2 Under Mesh 1, click the Size node

3 In the Settings window for Size

under Element Size, click the
Custom button.
Under Element Size Parameters,
enter:
- mh in the Maximum element size
field. Note that mh is 6 mmthe

value entered earlier as a global

parameter. By using the
parameter mh, element sizes are
limited to this value.
- mh-mh/3 in the Minimum

element size field. The

Minimum element size is slightly
smaller than the maximum size.
- 0.2 in the Curvature factor field.

The Curvature factor

determines the number of
elements on curved boundaries;
a lower value gives a finer mesh.
The other two parameters are left
unchanged.
The Maximum element growth rate determines how fast the elements should
grow from small to large over a domain. The larger this value is, the larger the
growth rate. A value of 1 does not give any growth.
For Resolution of narrow regions, a higher value will in general result in a finer
mesh.
The asterisk (*) that displays in the upper-right corner of the Size node
indicates that the node is being edited.

70 |

4 Click the Build All button

as in this figure:

in the Settings window for Size to create the mesh

You can also click Build Mesh in the Home tab of the ribbon.

Study
1 To run a simulation, in the Model
Builder, right-click Study 1
and
choose Compute . You can also
press F8 or click Compute in the
ribbon Home tab.
The Study node
automatically
defines a solution sequence for the
simulation based on the selected
physics and the study type. The
simulation only takes a few seconds to
solve. During the solution process, two Convergence plots are generated and are
available from tabs next to the Graphics window. These plots show the
convergence progress of the different solver algorithms engaged by the Study.

| 71

Results
By default, in the Results node, three plot groups are
generated: a Multislice plot of the Electric Potential, a
Surface plot of the Temperature, and a plot named
Isothermal Contours containing an Isosurface plot of
the temperature.
Click Results > Temperature to view the temperature
plot in the Graphics window. The temperature
difference in the device is less than 10 K due to the high
thermal conductivity of copper and titanium. The
temperature variations are largest in the top bolt, which
conducts double the amount of current compared to the two lower bolts. The
temperature is substantially higher than the ambient temperature of 293 K.
1 Click and drag the image in the Graphics window to rotate and view the back
of the busbar.

2 On the Graphics toolbar, click the Go to Default 3D View button

You can now manually set the color table range to visualize the temperature
difference in the copper part.
3 In the Model Builder, expand the Results > Temperature node
Surface 1 node .

72 |

and click the

4 In the Settings window for Surface click Range to expand the section. Select the
Manual color range check box and enter 323 in the Maximum field (replace the
default). Click the Plot button
on the Settings window for Surface.

5 On the Graphics toolbar, click the Zoom Extents button

plot.

to view the updated

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6 Click and drag in the Graphics window to rotate the busbar and view the back.

The temperature distribution is laterally symmetric with a vertical mirror plane

running between the two lower titanium bolts and cutting through the center of
the upper bolt. In this case, the model does not require much computing power
and you can model the entire geometry. For more complex models, you can
consider using symmetries to reduce the computational requirements.
Select Go to Default 3D View on the toolbar in the Graphics window

Now, let us generate a Surface plot that shows the current density in the device.
1 In the Model Builder, right-click
Results
and add a 3D Plot
Group . Right-click 3D Plot
Group 4
and add a Surface
node .

74 |

2 In the Settings window for Surface under

Expression, click the Replace Expression
button . Go to
Model>Component1>Electric Currents >
Currents and charge > ec.normJ -Current
density norm and double-click or press Enter
to select.

ec.normJ is the variable for the magnitude,

or absolute value, of the current density
vector. You can also enter ec.normJ in the
Expression field when you know the variable
name.

3 Click the Plot button

The plot that displays in the Graphics window is almost uniform in color due to
the high current density at the contact edges with the bolts. The next step is to
manually change the color table range to visualize the current density
distribution.
4 In the Settings window for Surface under Range, select the Manual color range
check box. Enter 1e6 in the Maximum field and replace the default.

| 75

5 Click the Plot button

The resulting plot shows that the current takes the shortest path in the
90-degree bend in the busbar. Notice that the edges of the busbar outside of
the bolts are hardly utilized for current conduction.

6 Click and drag the busbar in the Graphics window to view the back. Continue
rotating the image to see the high current density around the contact surfaces
of each of the bolts.

Make sure to save the model. This version of the model, busbar.mph, is
reused and renamed during the next set of tutorials.
When you are done, click the Go to Default 3D View button
on the Graphics
toolbar. As a next step you will create a model thumbnail image.

76 |

C REATING M ODEL I MAGES

FROM

P LOTS

With any solution, you can create an image to display in COMSOL when
browsing for model files. After generating a plot, in the Model Builder under
Results click the plot. Then click the root node (the first node in the model tree).
In the Settings window for Root under Thumbnail, click Set from Graphics
Window.
There are two other ways to create images from a plot. One is to click the
Image Snapshot button in the Graphics toolbar to directly create an image. You
can also add an Image node
to an Export node to create an image file.
Right-click the plot group of interest and then select Add Image to Export.
This completes the Busbar example. The next sections are designed to improve
your understanding of the steps implemented so far, and to extend your
simulation to include additional effects like thermal expansion and fluid flow.
These additional topics begin on the following pages:
Parameters, Functions, Variables and Couplings on page 78
Material Properties and Material Libraries on page 82
Adding Meshes on page 84
Adding Physics on page 86
Parametric Sweeps on page 107
Parallel Computing on page 116
Appendix ABuilding a Geometry on page 120

| 77

Advanced Topics

Par a m e t e r s , F u n c t i o n s , Va r i a bl e s a n d C o u p l i n g s
This section explores working with Parameters, Functions, Variables, and
Component Couplings.
Global Definitions and Component Definitions contain functionality that help
you to prepare model inputs and component couplings, and to organize
simulations. You have already used the functionality for adding Parameters to
organize model inputs in Global Definitions on page 55.
Functions, available as both Global Definitions and Component Definitions,
contain a set of predefined function templates that can be useful when setting up
multiphysics simulations. For example, the Step function template can create a
smooth step function for defining different types of spatial or temporal transitions.
To illustrate using functions, assume that you want to add a time dependent study
to the busbar model where an electric potential is applied across the busbar that
goes from 0 V to 20 mV in 0.5 seconds. For this purpose, you could use a step
function to be multiplied with the parameter Vtot. In this section, youll add a
step function to the model that goes smoothly from 0 to 1 in 0.5 seconds to find
out how functions can be defined and verified.

D EFINING F UNCTIONS
For this section, you can continue working with the same model file created in the
previous section. Locate and open the file busbar.mph if it is not already open on
the desktop.

78 |

1 Right-click the Global Definitions node

and select Functions>Step

2 In the Settings window for Step enter 0.25 in the Location field to set the
location of the middle of the step, where it has the value of 0.5.

3 Click Smoothing to expand the section and enter 0.5 in the Size of transition
zone field to set the width of the smoothing interval. Keep the default Number
of continuous derivatives at 2.
4 Click the Plot button

in the Settings window for Step.

| 79

If your plot matches the one below, this confirms that you have defined the
function correctly.

You can also add comments and rename the function to make it more descriptive.
5 Right-click the Step 1 node
in the Model Builder and
select Properties .

80 |

6 In the Properties window, enter any

information you want. Right-click
the Properties tab and select Close
when you are finished.

For the purpose of this exercise,

assume that you want to introduce a
second component to represent an
electric device connected to the
busbar through the titanium bolts.
A first step would be to rename
Component 1 to specify that it
represents the busbar.
1 Right-click the Component 1 node

and select Rename

(or press F2).

2 In the Rename Component window, enter Busbar. Click OK and save the
model.

D EFINING C OMPONENT C OUPLINGS

Right-click the Definitions node
under
Busbar (comp1) to introduce a Component
Coupling that computes the integral of any
Busbar (comp1) variable at the bolt boundaries
facing the electric device. You can use such a
coupling, for example, to define a Variable in
the Global Definitions node that calculates the
total current. This variable is then globally
accessible and could, for example, form a
boundary condition for the current that is fed
to an electric device modeled as a second
component.
The Component Couplings in Definitions have
a wide range of uses. The Average ,

| 81

Maximum , and Minimum

couplings have applications in generating results
as well as in boundary conditions, sources, sinks, properties, or any other
contribution to the model equations. The Probes
are for monitoring the
solution progress. For instance, you can follow the solution at a critical point
during a time-dependent simulation, or for each parameter value in a parametric
study.
You can find an example of using the average operator in Parametric Sweeps on
page 107. Also see Functions on page 144 for a list of available COMSOL
functions.
To learn more about working with definitions, in the Model Builder, click
the Definitions
or Global Definitions
node and press F1 to open the
Help window . This window displays helpful information about the
selected item in the desktop and provides links to the documentation. It
could take up to a minute for the window to load the first time it is activated,
but will load quickly the next time it is opened.

Ma te ria l Prope r tie s and Ma te rial Libra ries

You have already used the functionality in Materials to access the properties of
copper and titanium in the busbar model. In Materials, you are also able to define
your own materials and save them in your material library. You can also add
material properties to existing materials. In cases where you define properties that
are functions of other variables, typically temperature, the plot functionality helps
you to verify the property functions in the range of interest. You can also load
Excel spreadsheets and define interpolation functions for material properties
using LiveLink for Excel.
The Material Library add-on contains over 2500 materials with tens of thousands
of temperature-dependent property functions.
First investigate how to add properties to an existing material. Assume that you
want to add bulk modulus and shear modulus to the copper properties.

C USTOMIZING M ATERIALS
Let us keep working on the busbar.
1 In the Model Builder, under Materials, click
Copper .

82 |

2 In the Settings window for

Material, click to expand the
Material Properties section, which
contains a list of all the definable
properties.
Expand the Solid Mechanics >
Linear Elastic Material section.
Right-click Bulk Modulus and
Shear Modulus and select Add
to Material.
This lets you define the bulk
modulus and shear modulus for the copper in your model.
3 Locate the Material Contents section. Bulk modulus and Shear modulus rows
are now available in the table. The warning sign indicates that the values are
not yet defined. To define the values, click the Value column. In the Bulk
modulus row, enter 140e9 and in the Shear modulus row, enter 46e9.

By adding these material properties, you have changed the Copper material. You
can save this information in your own material library, but not in the read-only
Solid Mechanics materials library.
4 In the Model Builder, right-click Copper and select Add to User-Defined
Library .

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Addin g M eshes
A model component can contain different meshing sequences for generating
meshes with different settings. These sequences can then be accessed by the study
steps. In the study, you can select which mesh you would like to use in a particular
simulation.
In the busbar model, a second mesh node is now added to create a mesh that is
refined in the areas around the bolts and the bend.

A DDING

M ESH

1 Open the model busbar.mph

that was created earlier.
2 In order to keep this model in a
separate file for later use, select
File > Save As and rename the
model busbar_I.mph.
3 To add a second mesh node,
right-click the Component
1(comp1) node and select Add
Mesh .
By adding another Mesh node, a
Meshes parent node is created
that contains both Mesh 1 and
Mesh 2.
4 Click the Mesh 2 node. In the
Settings window for Mesh under
Mesh Settings, select
User-controlled mesh as the
Sequence type.
A Size and Free Tetrahedral node
are added under Mesh 2.

84 |

5 In the Model Builder, under Mesh 2, click Size

The asterisk in the upper-right corner of a node icon indicates that the node is
being edited.
6 In the Settings window for Size, under Element Size, click the Custom button.
7 Under Element Size Parameters, enter:
- mh/2 in the Maximum element size field, where mh is 6 mmthe mesh

control parameter defined previously.

- mh/2-mh/6 in the Minimum element size field
- 0.2 in the Curvature factor field.

8 Click Build All

. Save the file busbar_I.mph.

Compare Mesh 1 and Mesh 2 by clicking the Mesh nodes. The mesh is updated
in the Graphics window. An alternative to using many different meshes is to run a
parametric sweep of the parameter for the maximum mesh size, mh, that was

| 85

defined in the section Global Definitions on page 55.

Mesh 1

Mesh 2

A dd i n g P hy s i c s
The distinguishing characteristics of COMSOL, particularly adaptability and
compatibility, are prominently displayed when you add physics to an existing
model. In this section, you will understand the ease with which this seemingly
difficult task is performed. By following these directions, you can add structural
mechanics and fluid flow to the busbar model.

S TRUCTURAL M ECHANICS
After completing the busbar Joule heating simulation, we know that there is a
temperature rise in the busbar. What kind of mechanical stress is induced by
thermal expansion? To answer this question, let us expand the model to include
the physics associated with structural mechanics.
To complete these steps, either the Structural Mechanics Module or the
MEMS Module (which enhances the core Solid Mechanics interface) is
required.
If you want to add cooling by fluid flow, or dont have the Structural
Mechanics Module or MEMS Module, read this section and then go to
Cool by Adding Fluid Flow on page 93.

86 |

1 Open the model busbar.mph that was created earlier. From the main menu,
select File > Save As and rename the model busbar_II.mph.
2 In the Model Builder,
right-click the Component 1
node
and select Add
Physics .

3 In the Add Physics window,

under Structural Mechanics, select
Solid Mechanics .
To add this interface, you can
right-click and select Add to
Component or click the Add to
Component button at the top of
the window.
4 Close the Add Physics window and
save the file.

When adding additional physics, you need to make sure that materials
included in the Materials node have all the required properties for the
selected physics. In this example, you already know that all properties are
available for copper and titanium.
You can start by adding the effect of thermal expansion to the structural
analysis.

| 87

5 In the Model Builder right-click

the Multiphysics node
and
select Thermal Expansion .
A Thermal Expansion node is
added to the Model Builder.
You can also use the ribbon and
select, from the Physics tab,
Multiphysics >Thermal
Expansion.
6 In the Settings window for Thermal
Expansion, from the Selection list
select All domains. This will enable
thermal expansion in the copper as
well as in the titanium bolts.
The Thermal Expansion Properties
section of this window shows
information about the Coefficient of
thermal expansion and the Strain
reference temperature. The
Coefficient of thermal expansion
takes its value from the Materials
node. The Strain reference
temperature has a default value of
293.15 K (room temperature) and
defines the temperature for which
there is no thermal expansion. The
Thermal Expansion section at the
bottom of the Settings windows
shows which two physics interfaces
define the physics for heat transfer
and solid mechanics. This is useful in
the case where there are more than
one physics interface for heat transfer
or solid mechanics in the model
component. Keep all default settings
in this window.
Next, constrain the busbar at the position of the titanium bolts.
7 In the model tree, right-click Solid Mechanics and from the boundary level,
select Fixed Constraint . A node with the same name is added to the tree.

88 |

8 Click the Fixed Constraint node . In the Graphics

window, rotate the busbar to view the back. Click the
circular surface of one of the bolts to add it to the
Selection list.
9 Repeat this procedure for the remaining bolts to add
boundaries 8, 15, and 43.
8

43

15
For easier management of
multiple boundary selections, you
can group boundaries into a
user-defined Selection. Once you
have selected boundaries 8, 15,
and 43, click the Create Selection button
Bolt top surfaces.

and give it a name such as

This Selection is then added as a node under Component 1>Definitions

and is accessible from the Selection list for all types of boundary
conditions. You can use this technique to group Domains, Boundaries,
Edges, and Points.

Next we update the Study to take the added physics into account.

| 89

S OLVING

FOR JOULE

H EATING

AND

T HERMAL E XPANSION

The Joule heating effect is independent of the stresses and strains in the busbar,
assuming small deformations and ignoring the effects of electric contact pressure.
This means that you can run the simulation using the temperature as input to the
structural analysis. In other words, the extended multiphysics problem is weakly
coupled. As such, you can solve it in two separate study steps to save computation
timeone for Joule heating and a second one for structural analysis.
1 In the Model Builder, right-click Study 1
select Study Steps > Stationary > Stationary
a second stationary study step.

and
to add

When adding study steps you need to manually connect the correct
physics with the correct study step. We shall start by disabling the
structural analysis from the first step.
2 Under Study 1, click the Step 1: Stationary node

3 In the Settings window for Stationary, locate the

Physics and Variables Selection.
4 In the Solid Mechanics
(solid) row under Solve for,
click to change the check
mark
to an
to remove
Solid Mechanics from Study
Step 1.

Now repeat these steps to remove Electric Currents (ec) and Heat Transfer in
Solids (ht) from the second study step.
5 Under Study 1, click Step 2: Stationary 2

6 Under Physics and Variables

Selection, in the Electric
Currents (ec) and Heat
Transfer in Solids (ht) rows,
click to change the check
mark
to an
to remove
Joule heating from Study
Step 2.

90 |

7 Right-click the Study 1 node

and select Compute
Compute in the ribbon) to solve.

(or press F8 or click

Save the file busbar_II.mph, which now includes the Solid Mechanics interface
and the additional study step.

R ESULTING D EFORMATION
Now add a displacement plot.
1 Under Results>3D Plot Group 4, click the Surface 1 node

| 91

2 In the Settings window for Surface in

the Expression section, click the Replace
Expression button .

From the context menu, select

Model>Component 1>Solid
Mechanics> Displacement> solid.disp Total displacement.
You can also enter solid.disp in the
Expression field.
Now, change to a more suitable unit. In
the Settings window under Expression,
from the Unit list select mm (or type mm
in the field).

3 Click Range to expand that section.

Click to clear the Manual color range
check box.

The local displacement due to thermal expansion is displayed by COMSOL as

a surface plot. Next well add information about the busbar deformation.
4 In the Model Builder, under Results>3D Plot Group 4, right-click the Surface
1 node and add a Deformation node . The plot automatically updates in
the Graphics window. Click the Go to Default 3D View button so your view
appears similar to the plot shown below.

92 |

The deformations shown in the figure are highly amplified to make the
very small distortions that actually take place more visible.

5 Save the busbar_II.mph file, which now includes a Surface plot with a
Deformation.
You can also plot the von Mises and principal stresses to assess the
structural integrity of the busbar and the bolts.

C OOL

BY

A DDING F LUID F LOW

After analyzing the heat generated in the busbar and possibly the induced thermal
expansion, you might want to investigate ways of cooling the busbar by letting air
flow over its surfaces. These steps do not require any additional modules as the
model only includes Joule heating without the previous thermal expansion
analysis.
If you have the CFD Module, the Non-Isothermal Flow multiphysics
interface is available. If you have the Heat Transfer Module, the Conjugate
Heat Transfer multiphysics interface is available. Either one of these two
interfaces automatically defines coupled heat transfer in solids and fluids
including laminar or turbulent flow, whereas in this example, this is done
manually and with limited functionality.
Adding fluid flow to the Joule heating model forms a new multiphysics coupling.
To simulate the flow domain, you need to create an air box around the busbar.
You can do this manually by altering the geometry from your first model or by
opening an application library file. In this case, you will open a file with the box
already created.

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After loading the geometry, you will learn how to simulate air flow according to
this figure:
Air outlet

Air inlet

D EFINING I NLET VELOCITY

Start by loading the geometry and adding a new parameter for the inlet flow
velocity.
1 If you have just reopened the software, close the New window that opens
automatically by clicking the Cancel button .

94 |

2 Click the Home tab, and from the Windows menu select Application Libraries
. Navigate to COMSOL Multiphysics> Multiphysics> busbar box.
Double-click to open the file,
which contains the geometry in
addition to the physics modeling
steps completed through the end
of the section Customizing
Materials on page 82.

3 Under Global Definitions, click the Parameters node

4 In the Settings window for Parameters click the empty row just below the Vtot
row. In the Name column, enter Vin. Enter 1e-1[m/s] in the Expression
column and a description of your choice in the Description column, such as
Inlet velocity.

5 Select File>Save As and save the model with a new name, busbar_box_I.mph.

A DDING A IR
The next step is to add the material properties of air.

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1 From the Home tab, select Add Material

and select Add Material.)

(or right-click the Materials node

2 In the Add Material window, expand

the Built-In node. Right-click Air and
select Add to Component 1. Close
the Add Material window.
3 In the Model Builder under Materials,
click the Air node .

4 On the Graphics window toolbar,

click Zoom Extents .
5 In the Graphics window, click the air
box (Domain 1) to add it to the
Selection list, which changes the
color to blue. This step assigns the
air material properties to the air box.

A DDING F LUID F LOW

Now add the physics of fluid flow.
1 In the model tree, right-click
Component 1
and select Add Physics

96 |

2 In the Add Physics window under

Fluid Flow>Single-Phase Flow,
right-click Laminar Flow
and
select
Add to Component.
Laminar Flow will appear under
Component 1 in the Model
Builder. Close the Add Physics
window.
3 On the Graphics toolbar, click the
Transparency button . In
addition, click the Wireframe
Rendering button . These two
settings make it easier to see inside
the box. Toggle these on and off as needed during the modeling process to
control the type of rendering used.
Now that you have added fluid flow to the model, you need to remove the air
domain (Domain 1) from the Electric Currents (ec) interface (we are assuming
that the air has no electric conductivity and hence no currents) and then couple
the heat transfer part of the Joule heating multiphysics interface to the fluid
flow.
4 In the Model Builder, select
the Electric Currents (ec)
node . In the Graphics
window, move the mouse
pointer over the air domain
and click to remove it from
the selection list. At this
point, only the busbar
should be selected and
highlighted in blue.

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5 In the Model Builder, right-click Heat Transfer in Solids . In the first section
of the context menu, the domain level , select Heat Transfer in Fluids.

6 In the Graphics window,

click the air domain
(Domain 1) to add it to
the Selection list.
Now couple the fluid flow
and the heat transfer
phenomena.

7 In the Settings window

for Heat Transfer in Fluids under
Model Inputs, select Velocity
field (spf) from the Velocity field
list. Then, select Absolute
pressure (spf) from the Absolute
pressure list.
This identifies the flow field and
pressure from the Laminar Flow
interface and couples it to heat
transfer.
Now define the boundary conditions by specifying the inlet and outlet for the
heat transfer in the fluid domain.

98 |

8 In the Model Builder, right-click Heat Transfer in

Solids . In the second section of the context
menu, the boundary section , select
Temperature.
A Temperature node is added to the Model
Builder.

9 In the Graphics window,

click the inlet boundary,
Boundary 2, to add it to the
Selection list.
This sets the inlet
temperature to 293.15 K,
the default setting.
The graphics should look
like the image to the right
(it may look slightly
different depending on
whether you have
Transparency and
Wireframe Rendering on or
off.) Continue by defining
the outlet.
10In the Model Builder, right-click Heat Transfer in Solids . At the boundary
level, select Outflow. An Outflow node
is added to the Model Builder.

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11In the Graphics window,

click the outlet boundary,
Boundary 5, to add it to
the Selection list. Use the
mouse scroll wheel to
scroll in and highlight the
boundary before selecting
it, or use the up and down
arrow keyboard buttons.

The settings for the busbar, the bolts, and the Electric Potential 1 and
Ground 1 boundaries have retained the correct selection, even though you
added the box geometry for the air domain. To confirm this, in the Model
Builder under Electric Currents, click the Electric Potential 1 and the
Ground 1 nodes to verify that they have the correct boundary selection.

Lets continue with the flow settings. You need to indicate that fluid flow only
takes place in the fluid domain and then set the inlet, outlet, and symmetry
conditions.

100 |

1 In the model tree, click the Laminar Flow node . In the Settings window for
Laminar Flow click the Clear Selection button .

2 In the Graphics window, click the air box (Domain 1) to add it to the Selection.
It is good practice to verify that the Air
material under the Materials node has all
the properties that this multiphysics
combination requires. In the model tree
under Materials, click Air. In the Settings
window for Material under Material Contents, verify that there are no
missing properties, which are marked with a warning sign . The section
Materials on page 59 has more information.
Lets continue with the boundaries.
3 In the Model Builder, right-click Laminar Flow and
at the boundary level select Inlet. An Inlet node
is
added to the Model Builder.

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4 In the Graphics window,

click the inlet (Boundary 2)
to add it to the Selection list.

5 In the Settings window for

Inlet under Velocity in the U0
field, enter Vin to set the
Normal inflow velocity.

6 Right-click Laminar Flow

and at the boundary level select
Outlet . In the Graphics
window, click the outlet
(Boundary 5) to add it to the
Selection list. Use the mouse
scroll wheel or keyboard arrows
to scroll in and highlight the
boundary before selecting it.
The last step is to add symmetry
boundaries. You can assume that
the flow just outside of the faces
of the channel is similar to the
flow just inside these faces. This
assumption can be correctly
expressed by the symmetry
condition.
7 Right-click Laminar Flow
added to the sequence.

102 |

and select Symmetry. A Symmetry node

is

8 In the Graphics window, click each of the blue faces in the figure below
(Boundaries 1, 3, 4, and 48) to add all of them to the Selection list. You may
need to use the mouse scroll wheel or rotate the geometry to select all of them.
Save the busbar_box_I.mph
file, which now includes the
Air material and Laminar
Flow interface settings.

When you know the

boundaries, you can click
the Paste Selection
button
and enter the
information. In this
example, enter 1,3,4,48 in
the Paste Selection window.
Click OK and the boundaries are automatically added to the Selection list.

C OARSENING

THE

M ESH

To get a quick solution, we will change the mesh slightly and make it coarser. The
current mesh settings would take a relatively long time to solve, and you can
always refine it later.
1 In the Model Builder, expand the Mesh 1 node
click the Size node .

and

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2 In the Settings window for Size

under Element Size, click the
Predefined button and ensure
that Normal is selected.

3 Click the Build All button . The geometry displays with a mesh in the
Graphics window (you may need to turn Transparency off to see the picture
below.)

You can assume that the flow velocity is large enough to neglect the influence of
the temperature increase in the flow field.
It follows that you can solve for the flow field first and then solve for the
temperature using the results from the flow field as input. This is implemented
with a study sequence.

S OLVING

FOR

F LUID F LOW

AND JOULE

H EATING

When the flow field is solved before the temperature field it yields a weakly
coupled multiphysics problem. The study sequence described in this section
automatically solves such a weak coupling.

104 |

1 In the model tree, right-click Study 1

and select Study
Steps>Stationary>Stationary
to add a second stationary study step to the
Model Builder.

Next, the correct physics needs to be connected with the correct study step.
Start by disabling the Electric Currents (ec) and Heat Transfer in Solids (ht)
interfaces associated with Joule heating from the first step.
2 Under Study 1, click Step 1: Stationary

3 In the Settings window for Stationary locate the Physics and Variables Selection
section. In both the Electric Currents (ec) and the Heat Transfer in Solids (ht)
rows, click to change the check mark
to an
in the Solve for column,
removing Joule heating from Step 1.

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4 Repeat the step. Under Study 1, click Step 2: Stationary 2 . Under Physics
and Variables Selection, in the Laminar Flow (spf) row, click in the Solve for
column to change the check mark
to an .

5 Right-click the Study 1 node

and select Compute
(or press F8 or click
Compute in the ribbon). This will now automatically create a new solver
sequence that solves for laminar flow and then Joule heating.

6 After the solution is complete, select the Temperature (ht) plot under the
Results node in the Model Builder. If you dont already have transparency on,
click the Transparency button
on the Graphics toolbar to visualize the

106 |

temperature field inside the box. To zoom, middle-click and hold down the
mouse button (or scroll wheel) while dragging the mouse.

The Temperature Surface plot that displays in the Graphics window shows the
temperature in the busbar and in the surrounding box. You can also see that the
temperature field is not smooth due to the relatively coarse mesh. A good
strategy to get a smoother solution would be to refine the mesh to estimate the
accuracy.
7 Save the busbar_box_I.mph file at this point so you can return to this file if
you want. The next steps use the original busbar.mph file.

Par am et ri c Swe ep s

S WEEPING

G EOMETRIC P ARAMETER

It is often useful to generate multiple instances of a design with the objective of

meeting specific constraints. In the previous busbar example, a design goal might
be to lower the operating temperature, or to decrease the current density. We will
demonstrate the former. Since the current density depends on the geometry of the
busbar, varying the width, wbb, should change the current density and, in turn,
have some impact on the operating temperature. Let us run a parametric sweep on
wbb to study this change.

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A DDING

P ARAMETRIC S WEEP

1 From the File menu, open the

model file busbar.mph. If you
didnt save the model, you can also
open it from the Application
Libraries: File menu > Application
Libraries > COMSOL
Multiphysics > Multiphysics >
busbar. In the Model Builder,
right-click Study 1
and select
Parametric Sweep . A Parametric
Sweep node is added to the Model
Builder sequence.

2 In the Settings window for Parametric Sweep, under the empty parameter table,
click the Add button . From the Parameter names list in the table, select wbb.

The Sweep type, available above the Parameter names, is used to control
parametric sweeps with multiple parameters. You select between
sweeping for All combinations of the given parameters or a subset of
Specified combinations.

108 |

3 Enter a range of parameter values to sweep the width of the busbar from 5 cm
to 10 cm in 1 cm increments. There are different ways to enter this information:
- Copy and paste or enter range(0.05,0.01,0.1) into the Parameter value

list field.
- Click the Range

button and
enter the values in the Range
dialog box. In the Start field, enter
5e-2. In the Step field, enter
1e-2, and in the Stop field, enter
1e-1. Click Replace.

- In any of the methods, you can

also use length units to override

the default SI unit system using
meters. Instead of 5e-2 you can
enter 5[cm], similarly 1[cm]
instead of 1e-2 and 10[cm]
instead of 1e-1. You can also
change the default unit system
from the Settings window of the
root node in the model tree.
Next, define an Average component coupling that can be used later to calculate
the average temperature in the busbar.

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4 Under Component 1, right-click Definitions

Couplings>Average .

and select Component

5 In the Settings window for Average select All domains from the Selection list.

This creates an operator called aveop1. This operator is now available to

calculate the average of any quantity defined on the selected domains. A little
later this is used to calculate the average temperature, but it can also be used to
calculate average electric potential, current density, and so forth.

110 |

6 Select File>Save As to save the model with the new name, busbar_III.mph.
7 Right-click Study 1
and select Compute
Compute in the Home tab.

to run the sweep or click

P ARAMETRIC S WEEP R ESULTS

Click the Temperature (ht) 1 node located under
Results in the Model Builder.
The plot that displays in the Graphics window shows
the temperature in the wider busbar using the last
parameter value, wbb=0.1[m] (10[cm]). Select
Zoom Extents
from the Graphics window toolbar
so that you can see the entire plot. The resulting plot
is rather uniform in color, so we need to change the
maximum color range.

1 Under the Temperature (ht) 1 node, click the Surface node

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2 In the Settings window for Surface click

Range to expand the section. Select the
Manual color range check box. Enter
309.4 in the Maximum field (replace
the default).
3 The Temperature (ht) 1 plot is updated
in the Graphics window for
wbb=0.1[m] (10[cm]).

Compare the wider busbar plot to the temperature for wbb=0.05[m] (5[cm]).
1 In the Model Builder, click the first Temperature (ht) node

112 |

2 In the Settings window for

3D Plot Group select
Study 1/Parametric
Solutions 1 from the Data
set list. This data set contains
the results from the
parametric sweep.
3 In the Parameter value list,
select 0.05 (which represents
wbb=5 cm). Click the Plot
button . Click the Zoom Extents button

on the Graphics window toolbar.

The Temperature (ht) plot is updated for wbb=0.05[m] (5[cm]). Note that if
you have updated the color range for this plot already, your plot should look
similar to the one below. If not, follow the subsequent steps.

Like the wider busbar, the plot may be quite uniform in color, so change the
maximum color range.
1 Under the first Temperature (ht) node, click the Surface node

2 In the Settings window for Surface click Range to expand the section (if it is not
already expanded). Select the Manual color range check box.

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3 Enter 323 in the Maximum field (replace the default) to plot wbb at 5 cm.
The Temperature (ht) plot is updated in the Graphics window for
wbb=0.05[m] (5[cm]).
Click the first and second Temperature plot nodes to compare the plots in the
Graphics window. The maximum temperature decreases from 331 K to 318 K
as the width of the busbar increases from 5 cm to 10 cm.

A DDING M ORE P LOTS

To further analyze these results, you can plot the average temperature for each
width.
1 Right-click Results

and add a 1D Plot Group

2 In the Settings window for 1D Plot Group select Study 1/Parametric

Solutions 1 from the Data set list.

114 |

3 In the Model Builder, right-click 1D Plot Group 8 and add a Global

node.

4 In the Settings window for Global under y-Axis Data, click the first row in the
Expressions column and enter aveop1(T). This operator is the one we defined
on page 110 for later use. You use a similar syntax to calculate the average of
other quantities.
5 Click to expand the Legends section. Select the Expression check box.
This adds a legend at the top right corner of the graph.

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6 Click the Plot button

and save the busbar_III.mph model with these
additional plots that use the parametric sweep results.

In the plot, the average temperature also decreases as the width increases. This
indicates that the goal of a lower operating temperature would be fulfilled by using
a wider busbar.
The subject of parametric sweeps raises the question of parallel computing; it
would be efficient if all parameters were solved simultaneously.

Par a l l e l C o m p u t i n g
COMSOL supports most forms of parallel computing including shared memory
parallelism for multicore processors and high performance computing (HPC) for
clusters and clouds. All COMSOL licenses are multicore enabled. For cluster or
cloud computing, including parallelized sweeps, a Floating Network License is
needed.
You can use clusters or clouds either for Cluster Sweep or for Cluster Computing.
If you have a Floating Network License, these two options are available by
right-clicking the Study node. However, you first need to enable Advanced Study

116 |

Options by clicking the Show button

selecting Advanced Study Options.

on the Model Builder toolbar and

C LUSTER S WEEP
Cluster Sweep is used for solving several models in parallel where each model has
a different set of Parameters. This can be seen as a generalization of Parametric
Sweep. Right-click the Study 1 node to add a Cluster Sweep node.

The Study Settings for Cluster Sweep are similar to that of Parametric Sweep, but
additional settings are required for the cluster or cloud being used. The picture
above shows how the top of the Settings window for Cluster Sweep would look
for the same sweep as defined in Parametric Sweeps on page 107.

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C LUSTER C OMPUTING
You can also utilize a cluster or cloud to solve a single large model using
distributed memory. For maximum performance, the COMSOL cluster
implementation can utilize shared-memory multicore processing on each node in
combination with the Message Passing Interface (MPI) based distributed memory
model. This is also known as hybrid parallelism and brings a major performance
boost by making the most out of the computational power available.
Right-click the Study node to add a Cluster Computing node. A Cluster
Computing node cannot be used in combination with a Cluster Sweep. You will
be asked if you want to remove the Cluster Sweep before proceeding, select Yes.
The Settings window for Cluster Computing, shown below, helps to manage the
simulation with settings for the cluster or cloud.

118 |

You choose the type of cluster job you want to perform from the Cluster type list.
COMSOL supports Windows Compute Cluster Server (WCCS) 2003,
Windows HPC Server (HPCS) 2008, Open Grid Scheduler/ Grid Engine
(OGS/GE), SLURM, or Not distributed.
To learn more about running COMSOL in parallel, see the COMSOL
Multiphysics Reference Manual.

| 119

Appendix ABuilding a Geometry

This section details how to create the busbar geometry using the built-in geometry
tools in COMSOL. The step-by-step instructions take you through the
construction of the geometry using the parameters set up in the Global Definitions
section. Using parameterized dimensions helps to produce what-if analyses and
geometric parametric sweeps.
As an alternative to building the geometry in COMSOL, you can import a
geometry from a CAD package. The optional CAD Import Module supports
many CAD file formats. Moreover, several add-on products are available that
provide bidirectional interfaces to common CAD software packages. See
Appendix EConnecting with LiveLink Add-Ons on page 158 for a list.
If you have not done so already, start with Example 2: The BusbarA
Multiphysics Model on page 51. Follow the steps under the Model Wizard to
add the physics and study and then follow the steps under Global Definitions to
add the parameters. Return to this section to learn about geometry modeling. The
first step in the geometry sequence is to draw the profile of the busbar.
1 Under Component 1, right-click
Geometry 1
and select
Work Plane . In the Settings
window for Work Plane:
- Select xz-plane from the Plane list.
- Click the Show Work Plane

button on the Settings window

for Work Plane toolbar.
Continue by editing the axis and grid
settings in Work Plane 1.

120 |

2 In the Model Builder, expand the View 2 node

and click Axis

3 In the Settings window for Axis:

Under Axis:
- In the x minimum and y minimum
fields, enter -0.01.
- In the x maximum and y maximum
fields, enter 0.11.

Under Grid:
- Select the Manual Spacing check box.
- In the x spacing and y spacing fields,
enter 5e-3.

4 Click the Update button

toolbar.

on the

Note that the values you type will

automatically adjust slightly after you click
Update to adapt to the screen aspect ratio.
You can use interactive drawing to create a
geometry using the drawing tools from the Work Plane tab in the ribbon while
pointing and clicking in the Graphics window.

Work Plane Tab

Geometry Primitives

You can also right-click the Plane Geometry node

add geometry objects to the geometry sequence.

under Work Plane 1

to

In the next few steps we create a profile of the busbar.

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5 In the Model Builder under Work Plane 1, right-click Plane Geometry

select Rectangle .

and

In the Settings window for Rectangle

under Size, enter:
- L+2*tbb in the Width field.
- 0.1 in the Height field.

Click the Build Selected button

6 Create a second rectangle. Under Work

Plane 1, right-click Plane Geometry
and select Rectangle .
Under Size, enter:
- L+tbb in the Width field
- 0.1-tbb in the Height field.

Under Position, enter:

- tbb in the yw field.

Click the Build Selected button

Use the Boolean Difference operation

to subtract the second rectangle from
the first one.
7 Under Work Plane 1, right-click Plane
Geometry
and select Booleans and
Partitions > Difference . In the Graphics window, click r1 (the larger of the

122 |

two rectangles) to add it to the Objects to add list in the Settings window for
Difference.
To help select the geometry you can display geometry labels in the
Graphics window. In the Model Builder under Geometry
1>WorkPlane 1, click the View 2 node. Go to the Settings window for
View and select the Show geometry labels check box.
8 Click the Difference node. In the
Settings window for Difference, click
the Active selection button to the left of
the Objects to subtract list. Select the
smaller rectangle, r2, by using the
mouse scroll wheel to cycle through the
overlapping rectangles to first highlight
it, and then click on it to select it.
Click Build Selected

Another way to select r2 in the Graphics

window is to use the Selection List
feature. Go to the Home tab in the
ribbon and select Windows > Selection
List. In the Selection List click to
highlight r2 (solid). Then, right-click r2
(solid) in the list and select Add to
Selection to add it to the Objects to

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subtract list. Right-click on the Selection List window title and select Close.
After building the selected geometry, you should have a backward-facing,
L-shaped profile. Continue by rounding the corners of the L-shaped profile.

9 Under Work Plane 1, right-click Plane Geometry

and select Fillet

Select point 3 to add it to the Vertices to fillet list. There are different ways to
add points:
- In the Graphics window, click point 3 (in the inner right corner) to add it to

the Vertices to fillet list.

- From the Home tab, select Windows > Selection List. In the Selection List

window, click 3. The corresponding point is highlighted in the Graphics

124 |

window. Click the Add to Selection button

Fillet or right-click in the Selection List.

in the Settings window for

10Enter tbb in the Radius field. Click Build Selected

This takes care of the inner corner.

11For the outer corner, right-click Plane
Geometry
and select Fillet .
12In the Graphics window, click point 6,
the outer corner, to add it to the Vertices
to fillet list.
13Enter 2*tbb in the Radius field. Click
Build Selected .

| 125

The result should match this figure:

Next you extrude the work plane to create the 3D busbar geometry.
1 In the Model Builder, right-click Work Plane 1 and select Extrude . In the
Settings window for Extrude enter wbb in the Distances from Plane table
(replace the default) to extrude to the width of the profile.

The table allows you to enter several values in order to create sandwich
structures with different materials. In this case, only one extruded layer is
needed.

126 |

2 Click Build Selected

and then click the Zoom Extents
button on the
Graphics toolbar. Click the Save button and name the model busbar.mph (if
you have not already done so).

Next, create the titanium bolts by extruding two circles drawn in two work
planes.
3 In the Model Builder, right-click Geometry 1
and add a Work Plane . A
Work Plane 2 node is added. In the Settings window for Work Plane, under
Plane Definition, select Face parallel as the Plane type.

| 127

4 In the Graphics window, click face 8 as shown in the figure below, to add it to
the Planar face list in the Settings window for Work Plane.
Face number 8 is now highlighted in blue and the work plane is positioned on
top of the face.
Face 8

5 Click the Show Work Plane button to draw the first circle representing the
position of the first bolt. Click the Zoom Extents button
on the Graphics
toolbar.
6 Under Work Plane 2, right-click
Plane Geometry
and select
Circle .
In the Settings window for Circle:
- Under Size and Shape, in the
Radius field, enter rad_1.
- Under Position, the default xw

and yw coordinates (0, 0) are

good.
Click Build Selected

128 |

Continue creating the bolt by adding an extrude operation.

1 In the Model Builder, right-click Work Plane 2 and select Extrude . In the
Settings window for Extrude, in the first row of the Distances from Plane table,
enter -2*tbb to extrude the circle.

2 Click the Build Selected button to create the cylindrical part of the titanium
bolt that runs through the busbar.

Draw the two remaining bolts.

| 129

3 Right-click Geometry 1
and select Work Plane . A Work Plane 3 node is
added. In the Settings window for Work Plane, for Work Plane 3, select Face
parallel as the Plane type.
4 In the Graphics window, click Face 4 as shown in the figure, to add it to the
Planar face list in the Settings window for Work Plane.

5 Click the Show Work Plane button on the Settings window for Work Plane
and the Zoom Extents button
on the Graphics toolbar to get a better view
of the geometry.
To parameterize the position of the two remaining bolts, add the circles that
form the cross sections of the bolts.

130 |

6 Under Work Plane 3, right-click Plane Geometry

and select Circle

In the Settings window for Circle:

- Under Size and Shape, enter rad_1 in

the Radius field.

- Under Position, enter -L/2+1.5e-2
in the xw field and -wbb/4 in the yw

field.
Click Build Selected

Copy the circle that you just created to

generate the third bolt in the busbar.
7 Under Work Plane 3, right-click Plane
Geometry
and select
Transforms>Copy .
8 In the Graphics window, click the circle
c1 to select and add the circle to the
Input objects list in the Settings
window for Copy.
9 In the Settings window for Copy under
Displacement, enter wbb/2 in the yw
field.

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10Click Build Selected

toolbar.

and click the Zoom Extents button

on the Graphics

Your geometry, as shown in the work plane, should match this figure so far.

Continue by extruding the circles.

132 |

11In the Model Builder, right-click Work Plane 3 and select Extrude . In the
Settings window for Extrude, in the first row of the Distances from Plane table,
enter -2*tbb (replace the default). Click Build All Objects .

The geometry and geometry sequence should match the figures below. Click
the Save button
and name the model busbar.mph.

| 133

C REATING P ARTS

AND

U SING

THE

P ART L IBRARIES

After setting up the busbar or other geometry, its convenient to be able to save
it for future use, avoiding unnecessary work. In the steps youve just completed,
the geometry was stored directly in the COMSOL model file that will also be
used to set up the complete busbar model. Instead, you can also create a
reusable part that can serve as a building block of a more complex COMSOL
model geometry, which is stored in a separate file accessible through the Part
Libraries.
While building the busbar geometry, you were using features from the
Geometry and Workplane tabs. A Parts menu is located in the Other group in
these tabs.

Through the Parts menu, you can choose to create or load a part, or add a part to
the model geometry by selecting one from the Part Libraries. Several Part
Libraries are already provided with the software by default. When new parts are
created, they are added under a Parts parent node in the Global Definitions
section of the model tree. For additional information on working with Parts and
the Part Libraries, see the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual.
To continue with the busbar tutorial, return to the section Materials on
page 59.

134 |

Appendix BKeyboard and Mouse Shortcuts

SHORTCUT (WINDOWS, LINUX)

SHORTCUT (OS X)

ACTION

F1

F1

Display help for the selected node

or window

Ctrl+F1

Command+F1

Open the COMSOL

Documentation front page in an
external window

F2

F2

Rename the selected node, file, or

folder

F3

F3

Disable selected nodes

F4

F4

Enable selected nodes

F5

F5

Update the Data Sets Solutions with

respect to any new Global
Definitions and Definitions without
re-solving the model

F6

F6

Build the preceding node in the

geometry branch

F7

F7

Build the selected node in the

geometry and mesh branches,
compute the selected study step, or
compute the selected node in the
solver sequence

F8

F8

Build the geometry, build the mesh,

compute the entire solver sequence,
update results data, or update the
plot

Del

Del

Delete selected nodes

Left arrow (Windows); Shift +

left arrow (Linux)

Left arrow

Collapse a branch in the model tree

Right arrow (Windows); Shift

+ right arrow (Linux)

Right arrow

Expand a branch in the model tree

Up arrow

Up arrow

Move to the node above in the

model tree

Down arrow

Down arrow

Move to the node below in the

model tree

Alt+left arrow

Ctrl+left arrow

Move to the previously selected

node in the model tree

| 135

SHORTCUT (WINDOWS, LINUX)

SHORTCUT (OS X)

ACTION

Alt+right arrow

Ctrl+right arrow

Move to the next selected node in

the model tree

Ctrl+A

Command+A

Select all domains, boundaries,

edges, or points; select all cells in a
table

Ctrl+C

Command+C

Copy text in fields

Ctrl+D

Command+D

Clear the selection of domains,

boundaries, edges, or points

Ctrl+F

Command+F [[check]] Find a search string

Ctrl+N

Command+N

New model

Ctrl+O

Command+O

Open a model file

Ctrl+P

Command+P

Print the contents of the plot

window

Ctrl+S

Command+S

Save a model file

Ctrl+V

Command+V

Paste copied text

Ctrl+Y

Ctrl+Shift+Z

Redo the last undone operation

Ctrl+Z

Command+Z

Undo the last operation

Ctrl+up arrow

Command+up arrow

Move a definitions node, geometry

node, physics node (except default
nodes), material node, mesh node,
study step node, or results node up
one step

Ctrl+down arrow

Command+down
arrow

Move a definitions node, geometry

node, physics node (except default
nodes), material node, mesh node,
study step node, or results node
down one step

Ctrl+Tab

Ctrl+Tab

Switch focus to the next window on

the desktop

Ctrl+Shift+Tab

Ctrl+Shift+Tab

Switch focus to the previous

window on the desktop

Ctrl+Alt+A

Not available

Go to Application Builder

Ctrl+Alt+M

Not available

Go to Model Builder

Ctrl+Alt+left arrow

Command+Alt+left
arrow

Switch focus to the Model Builder

window

Ctrl+Alt+right arrow

Command+Alt+right
arrow

Switch focus to the Settings window

136 |

SHORTCUT (WINDOWS, LINUX)

SHORTCUT (OS X)

ACTION

Ctrl+Alt+up arrow

Command+Alt+up
arrow

Switch focus to the previous section

in the Settings window

Ctrl+Alt+down arrow

Command+Alt+down
arrow

Switch focus to the next section in

the Settings window

Shift+F10 or
(Windows only) Menu key

Ctrl+F10

Open the context menu

Ctrl+Space

Ctrl+Space

Open list of predefined quantities

for insertion in Expression fields for
plotting and results evaluation

Left-click and hold down the

mouse button while dragging
the mouse.

Same as for Windows,

only available for
two-button mouse.

Rotate the scene around the axes

parallel to the screen X- and Y-axes
with the origin at the scene rotation
point.

Right-click and hold down the

mouse button while dragging
the mouse.

Same as for Windows,

only available for
two-button mouse.

Move the visible frame on the image

plane in any direction.

Middle-click and hold down the

mouse button while dragging
the mouse.

Same as for Windows,

only available for
two-button mouse.

The scene is zoomed in/out around

the mouse position where the
action started.

Press Ctrl and left-click. While

holding down the key and
button, drag the mouse.

Same as for Windows,

only available for
two-button mouse.

Tilt and pan the camera by rotating

about the X- and Y axes in the
image plane.

Press Ctrl and right-click. While

holding down the key and
button, drag the mouse.

Same as for Windows,

only available for
two-button mouse.

Move the camera in the plane

parallel to the image plane.

Press Ctrl and middle-click.

While holding down the key
and button drag the mouse.

Same as for Windows,

only available for
two-button mouse.

Move the camera into and away

from the object (dolly in/out).

Press Ctrl+Alt and left-click.

While holding down the keys
and button, drag the mouse.

Same as for Windows,

only available for
two-button mouse.

Rotate the camera around the axis.

Press Alt and left-click. While

holding down the key and
button, drag the mouse.

Same as for Windows,

only available for
two-button mouse.

Rotate the camera about its axis

between the camera and the scene
rotation point (roll direction).

| 137

SHORTCUT (WINDOWS, LINUX)

SHORTCUT (OS X)

ACTION

Press Alt and right-click. While

holding down the key and
button, drag the mouse.

Same as for Windows,

only available for
two-button mouse.

Move the scene in the plane

orthogonal to the axis between the
camera and the scene rotation
point.

Press Alt and middle-click.

While holding down the key
and button, drag the mouse.

Same as for Windows,

only available for
two-button mouse.

Move the camera along the axis

between the camera and the scene
rotation point.

138 |

Appendix CLanguage Elements and Reserved Names

Building a model tree in COMSOL is equivalent to graphically programming a
sequence of operations. Saving as model file for MATLAB or for Java outputs
the sequence of operations as a list of traditional programming statements. In this
section we will give an overview of the following element categories as defined by
the underlying COMSOL language:
Constants
Variables
Functions
Operators
Expressions

These language elements are built-in or user-defined. Operators cannot be

user-defined. Expressions are always user-defined.

A BOUT R ESERVED N AMES

Built-in elements have reserved names, names that cannot be redefined by the
user. If you try to use a reserved name for a user-defined variable, parameter, or
function, the text where you enter the name will turn orange and you will get a
tooltip error message if you select the text string. Reserved function names are
reserved only for function names, which means that such names can be used for
variable and parameter names, and vice versa. In the following pages, we list the
most commonly used built-in elements and hence those reserved names. A more
exhaustive list of built-in elements can be found in the COMSOL Multiphysics
Reference Manual.

VARIABLES

USED IN

A PPLICATIONS

Model parameters and variables can be used in applications. For example, you can
let the user of an application change the value of a parameter. In addition, variables
to be used in applications can be defined in the Application Builder under the
Declarations node. Such variables are available globally in form objects and
methods but cannot be used in the Model Builder.

C o n s t a n t s a n d Par a m e t e r s
There are three different types of constants: built-in mathematical and numerical
constants, built-in physical constants, and parameters. Parameters are user-defined

| 139

constants which can vary over parameter sweeps. Constants are scalar valued. The
tables below list the built-in mathematical and numerical constants as well as
built-in physical constants. Constants and parameters can have units.

140 |

B UILT - IN M ATHEMATICAL

AND

N UMERICAL C ONSTANTS

DESCRIPTION

NAME

VALUE

Floating point relative accuracy for double

floating point numbers, also known as
machine epsilon

eps

2-52 (~2.220410-16)

The imaginary unit

i, j

i, sqrt(-1)

Infinity,

inf, Inf

A value larger
than what can be
handled with
floating point
representation

Not-a-number

NaN, nan

An undefined or
unrepresentable value
such as the result of 0/0
or inf/inf

pi

3.141592653589793

B UILT - IN P HYSICAL C ONSTANTS

DESCRIPTION

NAME

VALUE

Acceleration of gravity

g_const

9.80665[m/s^2]

Avogadro constant

N_A_const

6.02214129e23[1/mol]

Boltzmann constant

k_B_const

1.3806488e-23[J/K]

Characteristic impedance
of vacuum (impedance of
free space)

Z0_const

376.73031346177066[ohm]

Electron mass

me_const

9.10938291e-31[kg]

Elementary charge

e_const

1.602176565e-19[C]

Faraday constant

F_const

96485.3365[C/mol]

Fine-structure constant

alpha_const

7.2973525698e-3

Gravitational constant

G_const

6.67384e-11[m^3/(kg*s^2)]

Molar volume of ideal gas

(at 273.15 K and 1 atm)

V_m_const

2.2413968e-2[m^3/mol]

Neutron mass

mn_const

1.674927351e-27[kg]

Permeability of vacuum
(magnetic constant)

mu0_const

4*pi*1e-7[H/m]

| 141

DESCRIPTION

NAME

VALUE

Permittivity of vacuum
(electric constant)

epsilon0_const

8.854187817000001e-12[F/m]

Plancks constant

h_const

6.62606957e-34[J*s]

Plancks constant over 2 pi

hbar_const

1.05457172533629e-34[J*s]

Proton mass

mp_const

1.672621777e-27[kg]

Speed of light in vacuum

c_const

299792458[m/s]

Stefan-Boltzmann
constant

sigma_const

5.670373e-8[W/(m^2*K^4)]

Universal gas constant

R_const

8.3144621[J/(mol*K)]

Wien displacement law

constant

b_const

2.8977721e-3[m*K]

P ARAMETERS
Parameters are user-defined constant scalars in the Global Definitions branch in
the model tree. Example uses are:
Parameterizing geometric dimensions
Parameterizing mesh element sizes
Defining parameters to be used in parametric sweeps

A parameter can be defined as an expression in terms of numbers, parameters,

built-in constants, and built-in functions of parameters and built-in constants.
Parameters should be assigned a unit, using [], unless they are dimensionless.

Var i abl e s
There are two types of variables: built-in and user-defined. Variables can be scalars
or fields. Variables can have units.
Note: There is a group of user-defined variables of special interest. Spatial
coordinate variables and dependent variables. These variables have default names
based on the space dimension of the geometry and the physics interface
respectively. As a result of the names chosen for these variables, a list of built-in
variables will be created by COMSOL: the first and second order derivatives with
respect to space and time.

142 |

B UILT - IN VARIABLES
NAME

DESCRIPTION

TYPE

Time

Scalar

freq

Frequency

Scalar

lambda

Eigenvalue

Scalar

phase

Phase angle

Scalar

numberofdofs

Number of degrees of freedom

Scalar

Mesh element size (length of the longest edge of

the element)

Field

meshtype

Mesh type index for the mesh element; this is the

number of edges in the element.

Field

meshelement

Mesh element number

Field

dvol

Volume scale factor variable; this is the

determinant of the Jacobian matrix for the
mapping from local (element) coordinates to
global coordinates.

Field

qual

A mesh quality measure between 0 (poor quality)

and 1 (perfect quality)

Field

U SER- DEFINED VARIABLES T HAT G ENERATE B UILT - IN VARIABLES

DEFAULT NAME

DESCRIPTION

TYPE

x, y, z

Spatial coordinates (Cartesian)

Field

r, phi, z

Spatial coordinates (Cylindrical)

Field

u, T, etc.

Dependent variables (Solution)

Field

Example: T is the name for the temperature in a 2D, time-dependent heat transfer
model, x and y are the spatial coordinate names. In this case, the following built-in
variables will be generated: T, Tx, Ty, Txx, Txy, Tyx, Tyy, Tt, Txt, Tyt, Txxt,
Txyt, Tyxt, Tyyt, Ttt, Txtt, Tytt, Txxtt, Txytt, Tyxtt, and Tyytt. Here, Tx
corresponds to the partial derivative of the temperature T with respect to x, and
Ttt corresponds to the second-order time derivative of T, and so on. If the spatial
coordinate variables have other namesfor example, psi and chithen Txy
would be Tpsichi, and Txt would be Tpsit. (The time variable t is built-in; the
user cannot change its name.)

| 143

Functio n s
There are two types of functions: built-in and user-defined. Functions can be
scalar valued or field valued depending on the input argument(s). Some functions
can have units for both input and output arguments.

B UILT - IN M ATHEMATICAL F UNCTIONS

These functions do not have units for their input or output arguments.
NAME

DESCRIPTION

SYNTAX EXAMPLE

abs

Absolute value

abs(x)

acos

Inverse cosine (in radians)

acos(x)

acosh

Inverse hyperbolic cosine

acosh(x)

acot

Inverse cotangent (in radians)

acot(x)

acoth

Inverse hyperbolic cotangent

acoth(x)

acsc

Inverse cosecant (in radians)

acsc(x)

acsch

Inverse hyperbolic cosecant

acsch(x)

arg

Phase angle (in radians)

arg(x)

asec

Inverse secant (in radians)

asec(x)

asech

Inverse hyperbolic secant

asech(x)

asin

Inverse sine (in radians)

asin(x)

asinh

Inverse hyperbolic sine

asinh(x)

atan

Inverse tangent (in radians)

atan(x)

atan2

Four-quadrant inverse tangent (in radians)

atan2(y,x)

atanh

Inverse hyperbolic tangent

atanh(x)

besselj

Bessel function of the first kind

besselj(a,x)

bessely

Bessel function of the second kind

bessely(a,x)

besseli

Modified Bessel function of the first kind

besseli(a,x)

besselk

Modified Bessel function of the second kind

besselk(a,x)

ceil

Nearest following integer

ceil(x)

conj

Complex conjugate

conj(x)

cos

Cosine

cos(x)

cosh

Hyperbolic cosine

cosh(x)

cot

Cotangent

cot(x)

coth

Hyperbolic cotangent

coth(x)

144 |

NAME

DESCRIPTION

SYNTAX EXAMPLE

csc

Cosecant

csc(x)

csch

Hyperbolic cosecant

csch(x)

erf

Error function

erf(x)

exp

Exponential

exp(x)

floor

Nearest previous integer

floor(x)

gamma

Gamma function

gamma(x)

imag

Imaginary part

imag(u)

log

Natural logarithm

log(x)

log10

Base-10 logarithm

log10(x)

log2

Base-2 logarithm

log2(x)

max

Maximum of two arguments

max(a,b)

min

Minimum of two arguments

min(a,b)

mod

Modulo operator

mod(a,b)

psi

Psi function and its derivatives

psi(x,k)

range

Create a range of numbers

range(a,step,b)

real

Real part

real(u)

round

Round to closest integer

round(x)

sec

Secant

sec(x)

sech

Hyperbolic secant

sech(x)

sign

Signum function

sign(u)

sin

Sine

sin(x)

sinh

Hyperbolic sine

sinh(x)

sqrt

Square root

sqrt(x)

tan

Tangent

tan(x)

tanh

Hyperbolic tangent

tanh(x)

B UILT - IN O PERATOR F UNCTIONS

These built-in functions behave differently than the built-in mathematical
functions. They may not belong in an introductory text but are listed to complete

| 145

the list of reserved names. For more information see the COMSOL Multiphysics
Reference Manual.
NAME

NAME

NAME

NAME

adj

dtang

linsol

sens

at

emetric

lintotal

shapeorder

ballavg

env

lintotalavg

side

ballint

error

lintotalpeak

sphavg

bdf

fsens

lintotalrms

sphint

bndenv

if

linzero

subst

centroid

integrate

mean

sum

circavg

isdefined

noenv

test

nojac

timeavg

circint
circumcenter

isinf

pd

timeint

islinear

ppr

try_catch

depends

isnan

pprint

up

dest

jacdepends

prev

var

diskavg

lindev

reacf

with

diskint

linper

realdot

down

linpoint

scope.ati

146 |

U SER-D EFINED F UNCTIONS

A user-defined function can be defined in the Global Definitions or Component
Definitions branch of the model tree by selecting a template from the Functions
menu and entering settings to define the name and detailed shape of the function.
TEMPLATE NAME

ARGUMENTS AND DEFINITION

SYNTAX EXAMPLE

Analytic

The function name is its identifier,

for example an1.
The function is a mathematical
expression of its arguments.
Example: Given the arguments x
and y, its definition is
sin(x)*cos(y).
The function has an arbitrary
number of arguments.

The name of the function with

comma-separated arguments within
parenthesis. For example:
an1(x,y)

Elevation

The function name is its identifier,

for example elev1.
Used to import geospatial elevation
data from digital elevation models
and map the elevation data to a
function of x and y. A DEM file
contains elevation data for a portion
of the Earths surface. The resulting
function behaves essentially like a
grid-based interpolation function.

The name of the function with

comma-separated arguments within
parenthesis. For example:
elev1(x,y)

Gaussian Pulse

The function name is its identifier,

for example gp1.
The Gaussian pulse function defines
a bell-shaped curve according to the
expression

The name of the function with a

single argument within parenthesis.
For example:
gp1(x)

( x x0 )
----------------------2
2

1
y ( x ) = --------------- e
2

It is defined by the mean parameter,

x0, and the standard deviation, .
The function has one argument.

| 147

TEMPLATE NAME

ARGUMENTS AND DEFINITION

SYNTAX EXAMPLE

Image

The function name is its identifier,

for example im1.
Used to import an image (in BMP,
JPEG, PNG, or GIF format) and map
the images RGB data to a scalar
(single channel) function output
value. By default the functions
output uses the mapping
(R+G+B)/3.

The name of the function with

comma-separated arguments within
parenthesis. For example:
im1(x,y)

Interpolation

The function name is its identifier,

for example int1.
An interpolation function is defined
by a table or file containing the
values of the function in discrete
points.
The file formats are the following:
spreadsheet, grid, or sectionwise.
The function has one to three
arguments.

The name of the function with

comma-separated arguments within
parenthesis. For example:
int1(x,y,z)

Piecewise

The function name is its identifier,

for example pw1.
A piecewise function is created by
splicing together several functions,
each defined on one interval. Define
the argument, extrapolation and
smoothing methods, and the
functions and their intervals.
This function has one argument with
different definitions on different
intervals, which must not overlap or
have any holes between them.

The name of the function with a

single argument within parenthesis.
For example:
pw1(x)

Ramp

The function name is its identifier,

for example rm1.
A ramp function is a linear increase
with a user-defined slope that begins
at some specified time.
The function has one argument. It
can also be smoothed.

The name of the function with a

single argument within parenthesis.
For example:
rm1(x)

148 |

TEMPLATE NAME

ARGUMENTS AND DEFINITION

SYNTAX EXAMPLE

Random

The function name is its identifier,

for example rn1.
A random function generates white
noise with uniform or normal
distribution and has one or more
arguments to simulate white noise.
The function has arbitrary number
of arguments.

The name of the function with

comma-separated arguments within
parenthesis. For example:
rn1(x,y)
The arguments x and y are used as a
random seeds for the random
function.

Rectangle

The function name is its identifier,

for example rect1.
A rectangle function is 1 in an
interval and 0 everywhere else.
The function has one argument.

The name of the function with a

single argument within parenthesis.
For example:
rect1(x)

Step

The function name is its identifier,

for example step1.
A step function is a sharp transition
from 0 to some other value
(amplitude) at some location.
The function has one argument. It
can also be smoothed.

The name of the function with a

single argument within parenthesis.
For example:
step1(x)

Triangle

The function name is its identifier,

for example tri1.
A triangle function is a linear
increase and linear decline within an
interval and 0 everywhere else.
The function has one argument. It
can also be smoothed.

The name of the function with a

single argument within parenthesis.
For example:
tri1(x)

Waveform

The function name is its identifier,

for example wv1.
A waveform function is a periodic
function with one of several
characteristic shapes: sawtooth, sine,
square, or triangle.
The function has one argument. It
can also be smoothed.

The name of the function with a

single argument within parenthesis.
For example:
wv1(x)

| 149

TEMPLATE NAME

ARGUMENTS AND DEFINITION

SYNTAX EXAMPLE

External (Global
Definitions only)

An external function defines an

interface to one or more functions
written in the C language (which
can be a wrapper function
interfacing source code written in
for example Fortran). Such an
external function can be used, for
example, to interface a user-created
shared library. Note that the
extension of a shared library file
depends on the platform: .dll
(Windows), .so (Linux), or .dylib
(OS X).

The name of the function and the

appropriate number of arguments
within parenthesis. For example:
myextfunc(a,b)

MATLAB
(Global
Definitions only)

A MATLAB function interfaces

one or more functions written in
the MATLAB language. Such
functions can be used as any other
function defined in COMSOL
provided LiveLink for MATLAB
and MATLAB are installed.
(MATLAB functions are evaluated
by MATLAB at runtime.)

The name of the function and the

appropriate number of arguments
within parenthesis. For example:
mymatlabfunc(a,b)

150 |

Unar y and Binar y Operators

PRECEDENCE LEVEL

SYMBOL

DESCRIPTION

() {} .

Grouping, Lists, Scope

Power

! - +

Unary: Logical Not, Minus, Plus

[]

Unit

* /

Multiplication, Division

+ -

Binary: Addition, Subtraction

< <= > >=

Comparisons: Less-Than, Less-Than or

Equal, More-Than, More-Than or Equal

== !=

Comparisons: Equal, Not Equal

&&

Logical And

10

||

Logical Or

11

Element Separator in Lists

Ex pres sions

P ARAMETERS
A parameter expression can contain: numbers, parameters, built-in constants,
built-in functions of parameter expressions, unary and binary operators.
Parameters can have units.

VARIABLES
A variable expression can contain: numbers, parameters, constants, variables,
functions of variable expressions, unary and binary operators. Variables can have
units.

F UNCTIONS
A function definition can contain: input arguments, numbers, parameters,
constants, functions of parameter expressions including input arguments, unary
and binary operators.

| 151

Appendix DFile Formats

C O M S O L F i l e Fo r m a t s
The COMSOL Model file type, with the extension .mph, is the default file type
containing the entire model tree. The file contains both binary and text data. The
mesh and solution data are stored as binary data, while all other information is
stored as plain text.
The Application Builder file type, with the extension .mphapp, contains an
application that can be run in COMSOL Multiphysics, the COMSOL client for
Windows, or through a web browser. See the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference
Manual and the Application Builder Reference Manual for more information.
The COMSOL binary and text file types, with the extension .mphbin and
.mphtxt, respectively, contain either geometry objects or mesh objects which can
be imported directly to the Geometry or Mesh branches in the model tree.
The Physics Builder file type, with the extension .mphphb, contains one or more
physics interfaces that you can access from the Model Wizard. See the Physics
Builder Manual, for more information.
See Supported External File Formats for more information about all the other
formats supported by COMSOL.
FILE TYPE

EXTENSION

READ

WRITE

COMSOL Model

.mph

Yes

Yes

Application Builder

.mphapp

Yes

Yes

Binary Data

.mphbin

Yes

Yes

Text Data

.mphtxt

Yes

Yes

Physics Builder

.mphphb

Yes

Yes

S u p p o r t e d E x t e r n a l F i l e Fo r m a t s

CAD
The CAD Import Module and Design Module allow for import of a range of
industry-standard CAD file types. Additional file types are available through the

152 |

bidirectional functionality of the LiveLink products for CAD as well as with the
File Import for CATIA V5 add-on.
The DXF (2D), VRML (3D), and STL (3D) file types are available for import with
COMSOL Multiphysics and dont require any add-on products. Unless noted
otherwise in the table below, import of the listed file types is available on all by
COMSOL supported versions of Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows operating
systems.
FILE TYPE

EXTENSION

READ

WRITE

AutoCAD1,2,3

.dwg

Yes

Yes9

Inventor1,2,3

.ipt, .iam

Yes

Yes9

NX1,4

.prt

Yes

No

PTC Creo Parametric1,3

.prt, .asm

Yes

Yes9

PTC Pro/ENGINEER1,3

.prt, .asm

Yes

Yes9

Revit Architecture3,5

.rvt

Yes9

Yes9

Solid Edge3,6

.par, .asm

Yes9

Yes9

.sldprt, .sldasm

Yes

Yes9

DXF (3D1,2 and 2D)

.dxf

Yes

Yes10

Parasolid1

.x_t, .xmt_txt, .x_b, .xmt_bin

Yes

Yes

.sat, .sab, .asat, .asab

Yes

Yes

.step, .stp

Yes

No

.iges, .igs

Yes

No

.CATPart, .CATProduct

Yes

No

.vrml, .wrl

Yes

No

SOLIDWORKS

ACIS

STEP1
1

IGES

2,7

CATIA V5
8

VRML, v1

1,2,3

| 153

FILE TYPE

EXTENSION

READ

WRITE

STL8

.stl

Yes

Yes

1Requires one of the LiveLink products for AutoCAD, Revit, PTC Creo Parametric,

Inventor, PTC Pro/ENGINEER, Solid Edge, SOLIDWORKS; or the CAD Import Module;
or the Design Module
2
Import supported on Windows operating systems only
3Synchronization of files between COMSOL and a linked CAD program supported on
Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 operating systems only
4Import supported on Windows and Linux operating systems only
5
Requires LiveLink for Revit
6Requires LiveLink for Solid Edge
7

Requires the CAD Import Module (or the Design Module, or one of the LiveLink products
for AutoCAD, PTC Creo Parametric, Inventor, PTC Pro/ENGINEER, Solid Edge, or
SOLIDWORKS) and the File Import for CATIA V5
8Limited to a single geometric domain
9
From/To file using linked CAD package provided the original CAD geometry is created in the
CAD package
10
Writing to file is supported for 2D geometry only

ECAD
The ECAD Import Module allows for import of 2D layout files with automatic
conversion to 3D CAD models. The Touchstone file type is used for exporting
S-parameters, impedance, and admittance values from simultaneous port and
frequency sweeps. The SPICE Circuit Netlist file type is converted at import to a
series of lumped circuit element nodes under an Electrical Circuit node.
FILE TYPE

EXTENSION

READ

WRITE

NETEX-G1

.asc

Yes

No

ODB++1

.zip, .tar, .tgz, .tar.gz

Yes

No

ODB++(X)1

.xml

Yes

No

GDS1

.gds

Yes

No

Touchstone2

.s2p, .s3p, .s4p, ...

No

Yes

SPICE Circuit Netlist3

1Requires the ECAD Import Module
2

.cir

Yes

No

Requires one of the AC/DC, RF, MEMS, or Wave Optics Modules

Requires one of the AC/DC, RF, MEMS, Plasma, or Semiconductor Modules

154 |

M ATERIAL D ATABASES
The Chemical Reaction Engineering Module can read CHEMKIN files to
simulate complex chemical reactions in the gas phase. The Plasma Module can
read LXCAT files for sets of electron impact collision cross sections.
FILE TYPE

EXTENSION

READ

WRITE

CHEMKIN1

.dat, .txt, .inp3

Yes

No

CAPE-OPEN1 (direct connection)

n/a

n/a

n/a

Yes

No

LXCAT file2
.lxcat, .txt
1Requires the Chemical Reaction Engineering Module
2
3

Requires the Plasma Module

Any extension is allowed; these are the most common extensions

M ESH
The NASTRAN Bulk Data file types are used to import a volumetric mesh. The
VRML and STL file types are used to import a triangular surface mesh, and cannot
be used for creating a volumetric mesh. If imported as a Geometry, VRML and
STL files can be used as a basis for creating a volumetric mesh for a single
geometric domain.
FILE TYPE

EXTENSION

READ

WRITE

NASTRAN Bulk Data

.nas, .bdf, .nastran, .dat

Yes

Yes

VRML, v1

.vrml, .wrl

Yes

No

STL

.stl

Yes

Yes

I MAGES

AND

M OVIES

Results visualization can be exported to a number of common image file types, see
the table below. Images can also be read and used as interpolation functions for
physics modeling. Animations can be exported to one of the Animated GIF,
Adobe Flash, and AVI file types.
FILE TYPE

EXTENSION

READ

WRITE

JPEG

.jpg, .jpeg

Yes

Yes

PNG

.png

Yes

Yes

BMP

.bmp

Yes

Yes

TIFF

.tif, .tiff

No

Yes

GIF

.gif

Yes

Yes

| 155

FILE TYPE

EXTENSION

READ

WRITE

EPS (1D graphs only)

.eps

No

Yes

Animated GIF

.gif

No

Yes

Adobe

.swf

No

Yes

.avi

No

Yes

Flash

AVI1
1Available for Windows only

P ROGRAMMING L ANGUAGES

AND

S PREADSHEET

Model files for Java are editable script files, with the extension .java, that contain
sequences of COMSOL commands as Java code. Edit the files in a text editor to
add additional commands. You can compile these Java files into Java Class files,
with the extension .class, and run them as separate applications.
Model files for MATLAB are editable script files (M-files), similar to the model
files for Java, for use with MATLAB. These model files, which have the
extension .m, contain a sequence of COMSOL commands as a MATLAB M-file.
You can run the model files in MATLAB like any other M-file scripts. It is also
possible to edit the files in a text editor to include additional COMSOL
commands or general MATLAB commands. Running model files in the M-file
format requires the COMSOL LiveLink for MATLAB.
FILE TYPE

EXTENSION

READ

WRITE

.m

No

Yes

MATLAB : Function

.m

Yes

No

Java: model file for Java

.java

No

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

MATLAB : model file for MATLAB

Java : compiled model file for Java

.class
3

C: Function

.dll , .so , .dylib

Excel

.xlsx

Requires LiveLink for MATLAB

2Requires LiveLink for Excel, available for Windows only
3
Available for Windows only
4
Available for Linux only
5Available for OS X only

N UMERICAL

AND I NTERPOLATION

D ATA FORMATS

The grid, sectionwise, and spreadsheet file types can be read for defining
interpolation functions. The sectionwise and spreadsheet file types can

156 |

furthermore be read and used for defining interpolation curves and written for
exporting results. In addition, tables can be copy-pasted on spreadsheet format.
Parameters and variables can be imported and exported to the plain text,
comma-separated values, or data file types.
The continuous and discrete color table text file types are used for user-defined
color tables for results visualization.
Digital elevation model (DEM) files can be read and used as a parametric surface
for defining a geometry.
FILE TYPE

EXTENSION

READ

WRITE

Copy and paste spreadsheet format

n/a

Yes

Yes

Excel spreadsheet1

.xlsx

Yes

Yes

Table

.txt, .csv, .dat

Yes

Yes

Grid

.txt

Yes

Yes

Sectionwise

.txt, .csv, .dat

Yes

Yes

Spreadsheet

.txt, .csv, .dat

Yes

Yes

Parameters

.txt, .csv, .dat

Yes

Yes

Variables

.txt, .csv, .dat

Yes

Yes

Continuous and Discrete color table

.txt

Yes

No

Point data for Cut Point data sets

.txt

Yes

No

DEM

.dem

Yes

No

Requires LiveLink for Excel , available for Windows only

| 157

Appendix EConnecting with LiveLink Add-Ons

The following table shows the options to start COMSOL and the different linked
partner software using the LiveLink add-ons.
COMSOL
Software

Can Start COMSOL

from Partner Software

Can Start Partner Software

from COMSOL

Can Connect
Running Sessions

LiveLink

Yes1

Yes2

No

Yes3

Yes4

Yes5

No

No

Yes

No

No

Yes

No

No

Yes

- Bidirectional
Mode

No

No

Yes

- One Window
Mode

Yes

No

No

LiveLink

No

No

Yes

No

No

Yes

- Bidirectional
Mode

No

No

Yes

- One Window
Mode

Yes

No

No

for

Excel

LiveLink

for MATLAB

LiveLink
for AutoCad

LiveLink
for Revit

LiveLink
for PTCCreo
Parametric

LiveLink
for Inventor

for PTC
Pro/ENGINEER

LiveLink
for Solid Edge

LiveLink
for SOLIDWORKS

When you open a COMSOL model from Excel, a COMSOL model window starts and a link is
established automatically. The COMSOL model window is an output window that displays
geometry, mesh, and results.

158 |

A COMSOL model that includes a table reference to an Excel spreadsheet automatically starts
an Excel process in the background when the model is run in COMSOL Desktop environment.
3
You can start a COMSOL Multiphysics Server from a MATLAB session using the system
command and then connect to it using mphstart in the MATLAB command prompt.
4
The COMSOL 5.1 with MATLAB desktop shortcut starts a COMSOL Multiphysics Server
and MATLAB, then connects them automatically. When you run a COMSOL model in the
COMSOL Desktop interface that includes a MATLAB function (Global Definitions>Functions), a
MATLAB engine and connection is started automatically.
5
You can connect a MATLAB session to a running COMSOL Multiphysics Server using the
COMSOL command mphstart in the MATLAB command prompt.
2

| 159

160 |

Index
A

AC/DC Module 52

adding to selection 68

accuracy

variables scope 20

convergence analysis 45

boundary condition 64

recover option 43

automatically defined 39

Add Material window

boundary load 38

busbar model 60

busbar, setting 64

opening 34, 59

electric current 64, 67

add-on modules

fixed constraint 37

AC/DC 52

free 36

Application Libraries, and 22

ground, electrical 69

CAD Import 120, 152

heat transfer 64

CFD 93

insulating 66

Chemical Reaction Engineering 155

material interface 39

ECAD Import 154

settings window, and 8

MEMS 86

boundary load 39

physics list, and 30, 53

boundary section

Plasma 155

context menu, and 65

Structural Mechanics 29, 39

boundary selection, busbar model 66

study types, and 54

Build All button

advanced study options 116

geometry 57

advanced topics 78

meshes 39, 71

analysis

built-in

convergence 45

constants, functions, and variables 21

example, parametric sweep 49

materials 34, 59

application 22
Application Builder 5, 6, 8, 19, 22, 139
Application Libraries
examples 22
file types 23
MPH-files 22
opening 22
Application Library Update 24
average temperature 110
B

variables 75
C

CAD Import Module 120, 152

cancel button 10
CFD Module 93
Chemical Reaction Engineering Module
155

cloud computing 116

Cluster Computing node 116
Cluster Sweep node 116

blank model, creating 12, 14

Compact MPH-files 23

boundaries 66

Component node, adding materials 60

Index

| 161

computing studies 49

materials 62

COMSOL Desktop environment

physics 37

customizing 24

remove from selection 62

on Linux 15

variables scope 20

on OS X 15
overview 6

dynamic help 10
E

COMSOL Multiphysics

edges

native CAD format 32

variables scope 20

opening 30

eigenfrequency analysis 17

constants

Electric Currents interface

mathematical and physical types 21

defining boundary conditions 65

context menu

multiphysics, and 54, 69

domain and boundary sections 65

overview 64

contextual tab 14

electric potential 52

convergence analysis 45, 50

physics node 67

Convergence plot 9, 71

voltage drop, parameter 55

cooling

electrical heating 51

air stream 51

equation

natural convection 55

built-in 64

Create Selection button 89

user-defined 44

custom studies 54

error message, insufficient memory 41

customized desktop 24
D

ECAD Import Module 154

evaluating

data sets, defined 16

volume maximum 46

default feature 64

von Mises stress 46

Definitions node 28

example

degrees of freedom 45, 50

advanced, electrical heating 51

derivatives 21

basic, structural mechanics 29

Derived Values

Excel 158

defined 16

Export node, defined 16

Global Evaluation 50

exporting images 77

Volume Maximum 45, 49

expressions

Direct solver 41

Boolean 44

DirectX 11

manual entry 46, 55

discretize 39

replacing 44, 75

documentation, models 22

units, specifying 46

domain level 65

user-defined 44

domain section
context menu, and 65
domains

162 | Index

External Process window 10

F

finite element

mesh 39

image snapshot button 77

preconditioning 49

zoom extents button 58, 73

sparse matrix 41

Graphics window 9

tetrahedrons 39

geometry, and 33

Fixed Constraint node 37

plot 41

Floating Network License 116

rotate geometry 37, 72, 74

form union, geometry 57

selecting boundary 37, 38, 69

frequency response 17

using 33, 59

frequency-domain study 17

zoom box 38

Full MPH-files 23
functions

Ground, boundary condition 68

H

advanced topics 78

defining boundary conditions 65

built-in 21

multiphysics, and 54, 69

mathematical 21

overview 64

ppr(), recover option 46

Heat Transfer Module 93

scope 55

Help window

Functions node 55
G

Heat Transfer in Solids interface

defined 10

geometric dimensions

opening 16

parameters, and 18

high performance computing 116

parametric sweep 55

Home tab 14

geometry

HPC 116

building 55
CAD format 31

hybrid parallelism 118

I

importing 31

Image Snapshot button 77

images, creating thumbnails 77

in Application Libraries 56

importing geometry 31, 32

loading from file 55, 56

infinite elements 28

parameterized 18, 55, 57

information windows 9

settings window 8

initial conditions 8

Geometry node 27

Initial Values node

Global Definitions node 16

Electric Currents interface 65

functions 55

Heat Transfer in Solids interface 65

parameters 55

Solid Mechanics interface 36

scope 19, 55

Isosurface plot 72

variables 19

iterative solver

global parameters 19, 35, 47

multigrid 49

graphics

preconditioning 49

rendering and hardware 11

Graphics toolbar
default view button 37, 43, 69, 76

Java 156
Java-file 28

Index

| 163

Joule heating

refining 47

multiphysics coupling 69

settings 39

Joule Heating multiphysics interface 53

L

physics-controlled, default 69

equations 64

Laminar Flow interface 97

Linux version 15
LiveLink add-ons 158
Log window 9, 42
LU factorization 41

unstructured tetrahedral 69
user-controlled 48, 70
mesh element size
parameters, defining 18, 70
settings 39
Message Passing Interface 118
Messages window 9, 42

Material Browser
defined 10
material contents section 34, 61
material interface
mechanical contact 39
visualization accuracy 43
materials
copper 51
domains, assigning 61
model tree 27
settings window 8
steel 34, 44
titanium alloy 51
Materials node 34, 59
mathematical constants and functions
21

MATLAB 156
matrix 41
matrix equation system 41
Max/Min Volume plot 46
memory requirements (RAM) 40
MEMS Module
thermal expansion, and 86
mesh
convergence analysis, and 45
density 47
finite element 39
model tree, and 28
parameterizing 47, 69

164 | Index

M-file 28
modal tab 14
Model Builder
defined 15
example 27
expanding sections 64
geometry import 32
node sequence example 36
the ribbon, and 14
model history 28
model tree
building 15
defined 55
example 27
geometry 27
Global Definitions node 16, 35, 55
Materials node 27, 34
Model Builder, and 15
nodes, and 15
Results node 16
root node 16
Study node 17, 28
the ribbon, and 14
Model Wizard
adding physics 17, 30, 53
Component node, and 17
creating a new model 12
custom studies 31, 54
opening 30, 52

preset studies 31, 54

Parameters node 55, 78

space dimension 30, 53

parametric study 55

study 17, 54

parametric sweep 18

models
defining 15
discretization 39

meshes, and 47
range, defining 49

documentation 22

Perfectly Matched Layer (PML) 28

saving 59

physics

structural mechanics 29

adding 53

symmetry 74

boundary conditions 64

workflow 27

electromagnetic heating 53

MPH-files

heat transfer 53

full and compact 23

Joule heating 51, 64

saving 59, 76

laminar flow 97

MPI 118
multicore processors 116

example 48

model tree, and 27

physics interface 12

multiphysics models 51

Electric Currents 54

Multiphysics node 64, 65, 69, 88

Heat Transfer in Solids 54

multiphysics phenomena 51

Joule Heating 53

Multislice plot 72

Laminar Flow 97

nodes 15
default feature 36
reordering 28

Solid Mechanics 30
Plasma Module 155
Plot Group 16
3D, adding 44

OpenGL 11
OS X version 15

plots 43
expression, user-defined 44

parallel computing 116

max/min volume 46

Parameter settings

model tree, and 28

expression 47

regenerating 43, 47

name 47

surface 42, 44

parameters 18

windows 9

defining 47, 55

points, variables scope 20

editing 57

polynomial functions 39

expression 18

polynomial-preserving recovery 46

global 19

preconditioning 49

meshes, and 47

preferences 11

range of values 49

preset studies 54

scope 55

principal stress 93

using, referencing 67

program code

Index

| 165

model file for Java 28

model thumbnails, and 77

model M-file 28

Model Wizard, and 30

progress bar 10
Progress window 9
Q

Quick Access Toolbar 8, 15

renaming plot groups 44

rendering options 11
reports, defined 16
reserved name 21
resolution of curvature, mesh 70
results
color table range 72, 75
derived values 45, 49
displaying 42
quality, accuracy 43
recover option 43, 44, 46
surface settings, modify 72
units, changing 42
Results node
3D plot group 46, 74
busbar defaults 72
subnodes 16
surface node, adding 74
ribbon
Add Material 34, 63, 96
Build All 58
Build Mesh 71
Compute 49, 91, 106
defined 8, 14
example 6
importing geometry 32
Model Builder, and 14
Physics tab 37, 88
Windows 10, 42, 123
Work Plane 121
root node
default units, and 109
defined 16

running simulations 71
S

saving files 59, 76

scope
global definitions 55
parameters and variables 19
parameters and variables, defined 18
variable name 21
Select Study window 13
Selection 89
Selection List window 10, 123
selection of multiple boundaries 89
Settings windows 8, 15
shared memory parallelism 116
simulation, running 71
Software Rendering 11
Solid Mechanics interface 30
add-on modules, and 86
solvers
configurations 41, 49
default settings 40
default settings, changing 41
direct 41
iterative 48, 49
memory requirements 40
memory-limited settings 41
stationary 40, 49
using 40
space dimension 12
sparse matrix equation system 41
Stationary study 31, 40
steady-state study 17
structural analysis 29
structural displacement field 39
structural mechanics
design 45
plastic deformation 44
stresses and strains 51, 61

166 | Index

von Mises stress 42

overview 6

Structural Mechanics Module

application library 29

user-controlled mesh 48
V

mechanical contact, and 39

variables
advanced topics 78

thermal expansion, and 86

built-in 21

studies

example, built-in 50

computing solutions 49, 71

expression 19

defining 40

scope 55

example, multigrid iterative 49

scope, limit 20

example, stationary 40

Variables node 19, 55

model tree, and 28

visualization 9

preset 54

accuracy 43

types 17

color table 72, 75

Study node 17

Volume Maximum, evaluating 46

solution sequence 71

von Mises stress 42, 93

Surface plot
busbar results 72

W Windows list 42, 123

workflow 27

color table range 75

deformation 42
electrical current density 74

yield stress 29, 44

zoom 107

replace expression 75
settings 44
updating 73, 75
T

Table window 10
graph plot 50
wrench results 46
Tables node 16
tables, evaluating 50
temperature 72, 107
temperature, average 110
tetrahedron, polynomial functions 39
thermal expansion 51, 61
thumbnail image 77
time-dependent study 17
torque, applied 29

unit, changing 42, 92

user interface
COMSOL Desktop 6

Index

| 167

168 | Index