Structural & Acoustics Blog Posts
Simulating an RF MEMS Switch
An RF MEMS switch is typically made up of a micromechanical bridge or cantilever, a substrate, and an electrode or dielectric layer. You can design such a device using RF simulation.
Conjugate Heat Transfer
Get an introduction to the concept of conjugate heat transfer and see some of its applications and modeling considerations.
MEMS Microphone Model Presented at ASA 166 in San Francisco
What is a MEMS microphone? Learn about this versatile device, as well as how to model it using COMSOL Multiphysics® with the add-on MEMS Module and Acoustics Module.
Submodeling: How to Analyze Local Effects in Large Models
Modeling a particularly large structure with a lot of boundary conditions? Learn how to use submodeling, a technique for analyzing local effects in large models in COMSOL Multiphysics®.
Modeling Bone Strength Using Isotropic and Anisotropic Materials
The question of exactly how strong living bones are poses many important considerations for the medical industry. There is not currently a single-purpose device in the field to test bone strength. However, it is possible for researchers to get measurements of bone strength by modeling the entire makeup of the bone and using multiphysics simulation to perform stress and strain analyses. Simulating bone strength starts with a simple map of the external topology of the bone and then delves into […]
Predicting Microwave Drying of Potatoes
You may not think of reheating food in the microwave as a drying process, but as we saw at the COMSOL Conference 2013 Boston, microwave technology — the same technology used in domestic microwave ovens — can be used for drying fruits and vegetables. One poster presented at the conference featured microwave drying of potatoes and how the heat and mass transfer that occurs can be modeled to predict the drying process.
Why All These Stresses and Strains?
In structural mechanics you will come across a plethora of stress and strain definitions. It may be a Second Piola-Kirchhoff Stress or a Logarithmic Strain. In this blog post we will investigate these quantities, discuss why there is a need for so many variations of stresses and strains, and illuminate the consequences for you as a finite element analyst. The defining tensor expressions and transformations can be found in many textbooks, as well as through some web links at the […]
Coupling Transport and Solid Mechanics Models for Better Puffed Rice
In my work at COMSOL, it’s always interesting to see how broad the field of heat transfer can be. Far from being limited to steel ingots and CPU fans, researchers often use COMSOL Multiphysics to study heat transfer in food manufacturing. One good example of this is the study of thermal and mechanical effects in the production of puffed rice, which was presented at the COMSOL Conference 2013 in Boston.