Multiphysics Modeling Gets Real
Enhanced software, multicore processing, and improved correlations have made multiphysics modeling
techniques an integral part of the design process.
Most processes in our world involve combinations of multiple physical effects, from the flow of blood in flexible veins and arteries to the emerging field of plasmonics with its integrated photonics and electronics characteristics. Understanding these multiphysics problems typically involves coupled systems of partial differential equations (PDEs). Researchers have solved these problems in the past using a variety of separate software systems that they “knitted” together.
For example, researchers at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Rockville, Md., wanted to model the operation of a drug-coated stent. They divided this model into two phases—first, the stent deployment and then the drug delivery. They solved the stent deployment problem using a finite element code, ABAQUS, and they solved the drug delivery problem using a fluid dynamics system, FLUENT. The two problems could be sequentially coupled because the stent deployment structural problem was not affected by the blood flow-based drug delivery problem.
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