Taught by Robbie Balcombe and Emilio Ruiz Reina

The course is devoted to the specific physics interfaces and tools of the Structural Mechanics Module, which is added to the main COMSOL Multiphysics installation.

The Structural Mechanics Module is a very important complement to the COMSOL Multiphysics platform. It provides you with modeling tools and functionalities tailored to analyze the mechanical behavior of solid structures. Application areas include Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Geomechanics, Biomechanics and MEMS Devices. We can use it, for example, to perform advanced analyses on stresses, deformations, stiffness, flexibility, natural frequencies of vibration, response to dynamic loads, buckling instability, etc. Multiphysics capabilities allow us to further extend Structural Mechanics models by coupling with heat transfer, electromagnetic fields, fluid flow, etc., always within the usual COMSOL Multiphysics simulation environment.

We will start by reviewing the fundamental concepts of structural mechanics, including the different material constitutive equations and the different boundary conditions. Subsequently, we will study and practice their implementation in modeling using the available physics interfaces. We will also deal in depth with contact problems and multiphysics couplings, including the important case of fluid-structure interaction.