	Department of Engineering

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COMSOL

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The Classroom License the department has for COMSOL  only covers
Undergraduate use of the COMSOL Software.

Any RESEARCH use of this software is NOT permitted under this license.

Any research use (by postgraduates, research staff and teaching staff)
will require purchasing of a separate license.  

However Trial license and software can be obtained directly from COMSOL
Ltd.

Please contact the COMSOL Ltd for trial copies and for purchasing  
a separate COMSOL license.

Please contact the Computer Operators (email : operators@eng.cam.ac.uk) 
for further information.
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Also Note that COMSOL only runs in Clusters 4, 5 and 6. Clusters 1, 2
and 3 do not have enough memory to run COMSOL.
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Introduction (COMSOL Home Page)

COMSOL is a finite element program from COMSOL Ltd. (UK COMSOL Ltd).

COMSOL provides a number of ready-to-use application modes within the fields of Engineering and Science.

COMSOL Home Page

Products (What is COMSOL?).

Analysis Types

The following modes are available (sub options are available, as highlighted for structural mechanics problems):

Physics Modes
- Conductive media DC
- Diffusion
- Electrostatics
- Magnetostatics
- Heat Transfer
- Incompressible Navier-Stokes
- Structural mechanics
  - 2D plane stress / plane strain, 3D
    - Stationary
    - Eigenfrequency
    - Time dependent
PDE modes
- Coefficient
- General
Weak modes
Classical PDEs
- Laplace's equation
- Poisson's equation
- Helmholtz's equation
- Heat equation
- Wave equation
- Schrodinger equations
- Convection-diffusion equation

Modules

The following module is available in the Teaching System (T.S.)

Structural Mechanics Module

The following modules are NOT available in the Teaching System (T.S.)

Electromagnetic Module
Chemical Engineering Module

COMSOL Webinars

COMSOL Seminars are given around the country :

Webinars.

Seminars in UK.

COMSOL Training Courses

Training Courses

On-line Tutorials (COMSOL Home Page)

Animated Tutorials.

Support

Support.

Files

Input

The session can be saved as a *.mph file. These files when re-opened will re-run the steps upto the point where the previous session was saved.

Hardcopy Output

PNG, BMP, JPEG, EPS format files can be saved.

Command to run COMSOL

COMSOL is available under a classroom licence in the Teaching System (T.S.) Servers.

Running COMSOL

Log into the DPO terminals and COMSOL is available under Applications.
As an alternative, after logging into a DPO terminal in a clear area and click the Right Mouse Button and choose Open Terminal. In the x-term window type server-xterm and in the new window type comsol. You can slogin to any of the other servers and also run COMSOL.

The servers are listed here

Running COMSOL

Versions available are: COMSOL 4.0a, 4.1, 4.2 and 4.2a.

To run these versions:

COMSOL 4.0a comsol

COMSOL 4.1 comsol41

COMSOL 4.2 comsol42

COMSOL 4.2a comsol42a

If you run into any problem see the section below. If this does not help please contact the Computer Operators (email "operators@eng.cam.ac.uk").

Troubleshooting Problems in running COMSOL

When you start up comsol if you get the following error message (after the MATLAB window) instead of the comsol window, then click on the OK button.
Then at the MATLAB >> prompt type : rehash toolboxcache Then type exit and quit from MATLAB. Now at the x-term prompt > type comsol.