Physics Modeling Software includes Earth Science module.
Press Release Summary:
FEMLAB® scientific modeling software uses flexible finite element modeling to investigate geophysical processes that behave in ways in which one or more partial differential equations can predict. Module provides interfaces for fundamental physics tuned explicitly to geologic investigation. Users decide which physics are important in specific problems, module prompts for information and sets up the math, and FEMLAB solves code.
Original Press Release:
FEMLAB® Earth Science Module Takes Multiphysics Modeling Outdoors
Geophysical and environmental phenomena involve a wide range of physical processes acting alone and in concert. The new Earth Science Module from FEMLAB erases many constraints of conventional scientific software by providing a flexible but rigorous finite element modeling code designed especially for scientists, engineers, and students to freely pose and answer the coupled and interdisciplinary questions that earth scientists confront.
BURLINGTON, MA (November 3, 2004)-The earth and planets make a brilliant laboratory, filled with unlimited physical processes that function alone or interact in complex patterns. The Earth Science Module of FEMLAB sets up easy-to-use scientific modeling software for scientists, engineers, and students to investigate geophysical processes. The Earth Science module provides interfaces for a number of fundamental physics tuned explicitly to geologic investigation. The researcher in front of the computer decides which physics are important in a problem. The module prompts for information, sets up the math, and FEMLAB solves the code. Says Roger Thunvik of the Royal Institute of Technology KTH, "Modeling with the Earth Science Module you feel as nimble as a gazelle. By comparison, working with other software codes is like herding a team of bull elephants."
Poroelasticity and ground compaction, a migrating chain of pesticides and daughter products, fluids that creep through the soil and exit as fast free flow in a well, electrokinetics in a volcano, stimulating fluid movement, heat generated by radioactive decay, phase changes, endothermic reactions, gravity anomalies on Mars. Each of these physical processes behaves in ways that one or more partial differential equations will predict. Why FEMLAB can address all of these problems and more owes to the common thread that runs through them all-under each of these problems is one or more partial differential equations. Since FEMLAB is designed especially to solve systems of highly general partial differential equations, it sees each of these physics as a particular version of the template it is tuned to solve.
Nimble tool to predict the fate and transport of pollution
Major application areas for the new Earth Science Module include environmental, flow, and well analyses. What is the extent and magnitude of pollutants? Where will the contaminants go? Is it dangerous? What is best method to clean it up? To find the answers, one may need to predict the movement of a contaminant that trickles through the soil and travels with moving fluids, perhaps exiting to a stream. The chemical may generate heat, spread through cracks, produce electrochemical effects, and move between multiple liquid and solid phases for example. The set ups in the Earth Science Module work for regional problems and also zoom in tightly on micro processes.
Roger Thunvik and his student Robinah Kulaba are using FEMLAB in their work on peri-urban contamination in Uganda. An expert in environmental modeling, Thunvik has written or worked with specialized codes to examine disposal of radioactive waste, oil confinement in fractured media, and groundwater vulnerability assessment to name a few. According to Thunvik, "FEMLAB gives a fast accurate solution and also allows you to innovate and adjust in real time. You can make modifications and learn from them in minutes, even the type that would mean major structural overhauls if not starting over in your own code or another packaged software".
Precision analyses for flow to wells
Another important application area for the Earth Science Module is assessing the productivity of reservoirs. With flow to a well, at issue often is clogging of pores with solid particles and microbes, impacts of wellbore storage, flow of multiple immiscible fluids, and closure of fractures. Here flow physics often link with electromagnetics and solid deformation. Vladimir Grechka of Shell Exploration and Production uses FEMLAB to predict how petroleum reservoirs compact when fluids are extracted and how that deformation changes the way that the different fluids move to the well a concept termed poroelasticity. He also uses FEMLAB to assess elastic properties of fractured rocks. Asserts Grechka, "You can use FEMLAB to answer questions that you cannot even formulate within the framework of most existing codes."
Working in FEMLAB is straightforward. It comes with an easy-to-use graphical interface and advanced design tools that allow users to set up problems in 1D, 2D and 3D on one or more geometries. FEMLAB offers seamless coupling to MATLAB® so problems also can be set up strictly from the command line, without pointing and clicking. The user can stick to predefined physics or can create new equations from general templates. It includes versatile tools for viewing and comparing results from simulations including graphics for arbitrary perspectives and free reign to create, view, analyze, and export any equation or variable the user enters. With a recent development emphasis on computational performance, FEMLAB offers a suite of high-performance state-of-the-art solvers, so the accuracy, speed, and memory efficiency compares well with single physics packages.
System requirements
The Earth Science Module requires FEMLAB 3.1, which runs under Windows 98/2000/NT 4.0/XP as well as Linux, Solaris and HP-UX. 64-bit support is available under Linux (running on the AMD64 and Itanium processors), and under UNIX (for the Solaris and HP-UX operating systems). The minimum system configuration is a Pentium processor, 256M bytes of RAM (512M bytes recommended) and an OpenGL-compatible graphics card.
Price and availability
The Earth Science Module lists for $2,995, while a single-user perpetual license for FEMLAB 3.1 lists for $6,995 including first-class support and automatic upgrades for 12 months; special academic pricing is available. Production deliveries begin in October 2004. The software will be available from COMSOL as well as through its distributors around the world. Full details about the product and distribution outlets are available on the firm's web site at www.comsol.com.
About COMSOL
COMSOL was founded in 1986 in Stockholm, Sweden, and has grown to include offices in Benelux, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and a US presence with offices in Burlington, MA, and Los Angeles, CA. Additional information about the company is available at www.comsol.com.
TRADEMARKS
FEMLAB is a registered trademark of COMSOL AB. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
