Comsol has released major new additions to its simulation platform, Multiphysics. Version 4.3b introduces five new application-specific modules and expanded modelling and analysis tools. The Multibody Dynamics module provides users with the ability to analyse the assembly of rigid and flexible bodies. Transitional and rotational displacements, as well as locking, can be simulated for a variety of joint types, including prismatic, hinge, cylindrical, screw, planar, ball, slot, and reduced slot joints. The Wave Optics module enables users to analyse electromagnetic wave propagation in optically large structures, such as optical fibres and sensors, bidirectional couplers, plasmonic devices, metamaterials, laser beam propagation, and non-linear optical components.
Offering the capability to simulate rarefied gas flow in complex CAD geometries of vacuum systems is the Molecular Flow module. This includes applications such as mass spectrometers, semiconductor processing, satellite technology, particle accelerators, shale gas exploration, and flow in nanoporous materials. The Semiconductor module enables the detailed analysis of semiconductor device operations at the fundamental physics level allowing for the modelling of PN junctions, bipolar transistors, MOSFETs, MESFETs, thyristors, and Schottky diodes. Finally, the Electrochemistry module provides tailored user interfaces for electroanalysis, electrolysis, and electrodialysis. Typical applications include: glucose sensors, gas sensors, chlor-alkali electrolysis, desalination of seawater, waste water treatment, and control of electrochemical reactions in biomedical implants.
