Soon after computers conquered the technology landscape, finite element analysis (FEA) emerged as an efficient method to solve real-world engineering problems. Through the work of engineers, applied mathematicians and physicists over the years, theoreticians discovered an uncanny ability at the core of FEA: it could potentially solve for any system of physical phenomena because of its use of partial differential equations (PDEs), which can describe all sorts of physics such as fluid motion, electromagnetic fields and structural mechanics. In essence, the theoreticians realized that FEA was a way to translate these well-known mathematical objects into an approximate digital format.
Theoreticians then realized that FEA could address multiphysics – that is, coupled systems of physics. The need for multiphysics analysis tools was obvious: physics phenomena always interact in nature.
This is a new white paper from COMSOL.