Software works with Matlab to solve PDEs

-- EDN, 4/13/2000

The product name, Femlab, has nothing to do with gender. The first three letters stand for "finite-element method." Its developers considered-and rejected-a name based on the package's forte-solving partial differential equations (PDEs). Now they realize that users quickly develop a taste for solving PDEs. The publisher boasts that the package allows users to go directly from physics to code, collapsing into a few hours a process that used to take weeks. Moreover, the software is ideal for solving multidiscipline problems, such as those that involve both heat transfer and electromagnetics. Heretofore, solving such problems involved multiple steps, each of which took into account factors related to only one discipline at a time.

According to Lars Langemyr, vice president of R&D at the publisher, Comsol, Femlab differs from other PDE solvers because it lets you model in terms of the equations themselves (picture). Other PDE solvers use hard-coded PDEs that target specific application areas. Despite its wide applicability, the software does not require familiarity with numerical methods for solving differential equations. As a result, users can focus on the physics of the problem, rather than the mechanics of applying the software. The package, which requires Matlab V5.3 (www.matlab.com), costs $2995 for a version that works under Windows (95, 98, NT 4.0, or 2000). Other versions work under Linux, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, and Irix.

Comsol Inc, 1-781-273-3322, www.femlab.com.

-by Dan Strassberg