The global manufacturing industry is projected to reach a value of more than $20 trillion by 2032, exhibiting rapid annual growth from its 2025 valuation of $14.8 trillion (Ref. 1). As the manufacturing industry has such widespread reach, efficiency is important and stakeholders are always seeking to optimize their processes. Multiphysics modeling and simulation enable companies to optimize designs and increase efficiency while cutting down on costs, resources, and time — without sacrificing precision. Let’s take a look at three industry examples that were presented at the COMSOL Conference 2024.
1. Structural Testing of 3D Printed Objects
In additive manufacturing with 3D printing, the mechanical strength of an object is dependent on the 3D printing process used to create it. This brings additional challenges to additive manufacturing across a range of industries. BE CAE & Test, a COMSOL Certified Consultant, developed a system to test the effects of various parameters for structural analysis and develop numerical models in the COMSOL Multiphysics® software.
First, they created models of specimens with different parameters (such as infill density and outer layers) using the Structural Mechanics Module and Nonlinear Structural Materials Module. The team used the nonlinear elastic material model because the stress–strain relationships are nonlinear, even at infinitesimal strains, and the plasticity model, due to the nonlinearity at higher strains. BE CAE & Test used the validation data they gathered to create sample specimens from the models and 3D print them according to set printing parameters.
The 3D model, built using COMSOL Multiphysics®, was imported into open-source slicing software and converted into code to instruct the 3D printer. The printer created specimens with 25%, 75%, and 100% infill grades that could be experimentally and numerically tested.
The infill grade percentages, ranging from 25% to 100%, made a minor difference in stress tests.
Tensile test and a bending tests were performed on the 3D-printed specimens to see how varying infill grades affected the response to the tests. The tensile test resulted in datasets for the yield point and the stress function. A numerical–experimental validation was performed for both the tensile and bending tests. The average experimental stress–strain curves for different infill grades began in close agreement and then separated slightly as the strain level increased.
The specimens were experimentally and numerically tested until failure. The structural behavior under experiment was found to be in very good agreement with the numerical predictions.
Learn more about BE CAE & Test’s research here: “Structural Analysis on 3D Printed Objects Made from Experimentally Characterized Materials”
2. Simulating Melting Metal Using Infrared Laser Beams
Seurat Technologies developed Area Printing® technology, a cutting-edge 3D-printing approach for metals that uses a powerful laser to quickly melt metal powder by splitting vertically and horizontally polarized infrared (IR) laser beams. In a 2024 research paper, the company shared that at almost 100 kilowatts, IR-patterned beams melt powder “layer by layer”. An optically addressed spatial light modulator (or light valve) with a photorefractive liquid crystal layer dynamically controls the pattern of the laser beams.
When using high-power laser beams approaching 100 kW, thermal management must be accounted for in the technology because the temperature rise of the device impacts key optical properties of the liquid crystal, as well as overall device efficiency. The Seurat Technologies team used a validated numerical model of the heating process for the liquid crystal layer to design the cooling feature, then simulated the cooling design to determine the temperature distribution in the liquid crystal layer.
Seurat Technologies’ Area Printing® design that uses infrared lasers to quickly and precisely melt metals.
The light valve laser heating model used finite element simulation to determine the heating and temperature distributions. The model used inputs of laser wattage, intensity of wattage per centimeter, coolant temperature, and flow based on real-world measurements of the device. It accounted for nonisothermal coolant flow using RANS with SST turbulence equations and absorption coefficients measured as input. These inputs were used in conjunction with the Material Library, an add-on product to COMSOL Multiphysics®. The team validated the stationary model by comparing the experimental laser power, which induces E7 liquid crystal nematic-to-isotropic phase transition (melting), to the temperature predicted by the numerical solution. When direct temperature measurements are unavailable, the team can then use these validated simulations to optimize liquid-cooling designs.
The team found that the molten spot — which occurs due to the phase transformation at 57°C — looks the same in both the COMSOL Multiphysics® simulation and real-world measurement. (The measurement consisted of cross-polarized images where the melting transition also looks like a dark spot, which appears at 57°C with a laser power of 846 Watts.)
The point where the E7 liquid crystal phase transition occurs at 57°C, appearing as a dark spot in a cross-polarized image, which shows good agreement with the calculations.
Read the corresponding research paper from Seurat Technologies here: “Simulation of heating of a beam shaping spatial light modulator in Area Printing metal 3D printing”
3. Increasing Stainless Steel Longevity with Cold-Spray Coatings
The process of cold spraying involves depositing metal powder onto stainless steel at a high speed in order to increase the longevity of the steel by offering resistance to corrosion and wear. The high velocity at which the cold spray is deposited at allows the material consolidation of multimaterials and functionally graded materials (FGMs) with tailored properties and made of metals, alloys, composites, and ceramics.
Cold-spray manufacturing is currently widely used in repairs and coatings, but is still being investigated for its use in building structural load-bearing components in the aerospace and naval industries, as mentioned in a technical paper by Triton Systems.
Triton Systems uses a de Laval nozzle to accelerate fine particles in a gas stream and form a metallurgical bond that has low thermal impact when the particles make contact with the base stainless steel material (the substrate).
Diagram illustrating the system of a cold-spray gun system. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Customizing metal powder blends creates multimaterials with specific properties. FGMs are also tailored to specific properties. However, FGMs are made by gradually changing the powder composition through the spray process. The compositional change can result in gradual changes in material properties, such as mechanical strength, thermal conductivity, or thermal expansion coefficient. Triton Systems used modeling and simulation to predict the fatigue life of cold-sprayed multimaterials and FGMs from static mechanical test inputs. Testing the fatigue life through simulation software increases efficiency and reduces the time and expenses that would be needed for real-world fatigue testing.
The Structural Mechanics Module and Fatigue Module were used to develop a 3D model of coated and uncoated Type 1 aircraft tie-downs with realistic fatigue loading conditions to determine how cold-spray coatings improve fatigue life of stainless steel. In the model, an ASTM E290-22 dog-bone sample is subjected to cyclical stress tests. Force and moment loads are defined with load groups and the fatigue behavior of the dog-bone samples is found using equations from experimental S-N curves. A corrosion-resistant cold-spray CrC-Ni is applied to one sample in the model. CrC-Ni is represented through a user-defined system to customize the material properties. The model generates an output of cycles per lifetime of the multimaterial and FGM components.
The dog-bone sample with a cold-spray coating performed better under cyclic loading stress.
The team validated the results and the fatigue life predictions were compared with experimental data. The results show that the dog-bone spray-coated with CrC-Ni had an improved fatigue life and was less affected by stress when subjected to cyclic loading. The results were in close agreement with the lifetime predictions.
Triton System’s insights about the improved performance of stainless steel with cold-spray coatings builds on the research on multimaterial and FGM cold-spray components in cyclic load-bearing cases.
Learn more about Triton System and this research here: “Predicting Fatigue Life of Cold-Sprayed Multi-Materials and Functionally Graded Materials”
Multiphysics Modeling Boosts Manufacturing
These are just a few examples of how engineers, researchers, and scientists in the manufacturing industry are using COMSOL Multiphysics® to optimize products and processes and improve efficiency.
Check out our Manufacturing industry page for many more examples of what is possible with modeling and simulation.
Reference
- Global Manufacturing Market Size and Forecast – 2025-2032. (2025, May). Coherent Market Insights. https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/industry-reports/global-manufacturing-market
Area Printing is a registered trademark of Seurat Technologies Inc.
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