Comsol Multiphysics 3.5 is a simulation program with many features for medical-device designers and those in R&D. V3.5 now boasts of using the Parasolid file format (used by many other engineering programs) and a bidirectional connection to Autodesk Inventor. Multiphysics refers to the software’s ability, for example, to combine in one simulation structural and heat loads, fluid flows, moving boundaries, electromagnetics, and chemical reactions, all to produce more realistic results. This tends to make problems large. So, recent solvers take, on average, only 33% of the time of previous versions. Parametric sweeps, another feature, allow assigning a range to any number of parameters, such as dimensions, material properties, or temperatures. The software assigns the values to a range of models. Users then examine results for a best one.

The AC/DC Module 3.5 has an ECAD interface for creating geometries of printed circuit boards imported from ODB++ and GDS files. Chemical Engineering Module 3.5 allows two-phase flow for modeling immiscible fluids. The MEMS Module 3.5 allows two-phase flow application modes for multiphysics couplings. Electro-thermomechanical simulations are now easier to set up with predefined multiphysics couplings. Structures can interface with viscoelastic material models. And all features are available in a version for Macintosh computers. Freeze drying, commonly used for preserving food-stuffs and pharmaceuticals, also can be used in bioseparations to remove solvents. The accompanying image a simulation in the Chemical Engineering Module was for freeze drying to solve for diffusion and heat transfer while also tracking the interface between phases. Arrows indicate heat flux, and the color plots show temperature.

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