Proposals

Abstract

This proposal requests funding to purchase a computer simulation software suite, COMSOL Multiphysics, for the College of Engineering. COMSOL Multiphysics is a comprehensive simulation software environment for a wide field of engineering, manufacturing, and scientific research. Thanks to its powerful multi-physics simulation capabilities, this software is widely used in academia, industry, and national labs nowadays. Here in the College of Engineering at UW, undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Department of Bioengineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering Department, and Department of Mechanical Engineering would benefit from the acquisition of this software. Specifically, this software will help students implement their knowledge from the textbooks and course works into practical computational simulations, e.g., structural mechanics, fluid dynamics, heat transfer, acoustics, etc. This will, in turn, allow them to get involved in real scientific research, thus greatly expanding the research capabilities of the UW researchers. Computer simulations have been a powerful tool to solving the mathematical model of many systems in physics, chemistry, biology and engineering. By mimicking the reality, it can help the research to predict the response of a complex system for certain parameters and conditions, thus giving them a better understanding of the problem. For example, engineers use the computer simulations to calculate the strength of engineering structures and, based on which they can further refine the design and validate the safety. By introducing computer simulations into the R&D process, it can help to reduce the number of physical prototypes and experiments, thus saving time and cost for the developer. COMSOL Multiphysics is the leading provider of multiphysics simulation and analysis. The add-on modules from the product make it possible to consider two or more physics environments in one single model, including but not limited to, electromagnetics, structural mechanics, acoustics, fluid flow, heat transfer, and chemical engineering. Thanks to the ability to couple any number of physics phenomena together and to input user-defined physics descriptions, COMSOL Multiphysics provides the users much more freedom to control the simulation model, leading to accurate results by minimizing the assumptions its users must make. Such features will help the research gain advantage in many types of simulations, not only in the fundamental subjects but also in the advanced interdisciplinary studies.