COMSOL Day: Electric Power

The COMSOL Multiphysics^® software is widely used in the energy sector to model and simulate electric power systems that involve tightly coupled electrical, thermal, and physical phenomena. The software provides a comprehensive set of features for the research, design, and optimization of grid-scale energy storage systems, high-voltage cables, and other critical power system components, while also enabling detailed analysis of heat transfer and thermal management effects.

Beyond physics-based modeling, COMSOL Multiphysics^® supports the creation of standalone simulation apps, digital twins, and surrogate models, allowing simulation expertise to be shared across broader teams and integrated into engineering workflows.

Attend this session to get an overview of how multiphysics models and simulation capabilities are being used for engineering tasks in the energy sector and to receive a high-level introduction to the key topics that will be explored throughout this COMSOL Day.

Power system components play a central role in efficient energy transmission as well as electrified generation and conversion technologies. As power grids are modernized worldwide, simulation is increasingly used to accelerate development cycles, improve performance, and ensure reliability for a wide range of operating conditions.

The COMSOL Multiphysics^® software includes functionality for modeling electromagnetic fields, along with multiphysics capabilities for coupling electromagnetic behavior with thermal and structural effects. This makes it possible to study induction and Joule heating, thermal expansion-induced stresses and strains, and the influence of free and forced convection cooling as well as CFD on component performance.

Join this session to learn how COMSOL Multiphysics^® supports the design and optimization of important power system components, including high-power cables, power electronics devices, and electrical machines. Topics covered will include cables, transformers, power electronics, and rotating electrical machines such as motors and generators, highlighting common design challenges and analysis workflows.

Insulation equipment helps to ensure reliability and safety in power systems, from high-voltage transmission infrastructure to power electronics used in converters and grid integration. Designing robust insulation requires a comprehensive understanding of coupled physical effects, including electric field enhancement, electromagnetic heating, surface charge accumulation, and the risk of electrical breakdown. Electric discharge simulations can be used to support insulation design by enabling detailed analysis of discharge behavior in gases, liquids, and solid dielectrics. Applications include the study of corona, streamer, and partial discharge phenomena that are critical to the performance and reliability of high-voltage equipment.

This session will highlight how the COMSOL Multiphysics^® software can be used to model, analyze, and optimize insulation equipment across a wide range of operating conditions. You will learn about topics like electrostatics, electric heating, and electric discharge processes in high-voltage components and high-power semiconductor devices such as insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules.

Development efforts to meet the growing demand for electric motors and generators have accelerated with the transition to electric vehicles and wind turbine power production. Modeling and simulation plays an integral role in the R&D process, enabling engineers to address design considerations such as the:

• Need for electric motors to deliver high torque across a broad speed range
• Requirement for generators to provide power at low rotational speeds
• Limited availability of rare earth materials

The COMSOL Multiphysics^® software and the AC/DC Module add-on offer comprehensive functionality for modeling, simulating, and optimizing radial and axial flux machines based on various operating principles, including permanent magnet, switched reluctance, and induction designs. The module’s ability to account for nonlinear magnetic effects, temperature-dependent material properties, and heat transfer makes it well suited for developing high-fidelity multiphysics models.

In this session, we will demonstrate how the COMSOL^® software can be used to analyze rotating electrical machines such as motors and generators. We will highlight how the software incorporates nonlinear magnetic effects, such as hysteresis, along with temperature-dependent properties to achieve accurate simulation results.

The COMSOL Multiphysics^® software is used in the energy industry to model and simulate a wide range of physical processes. It offers unique modeling capabilities as well as easy-to-use features for creating standalone simulation apps. Using the Application Builder and COMSOL Compiler™, engineers can create and deploy standalone simulation apps that make high-fidelity modeling accessible to a broader community of scientists and engineers. These apps can also be incorporated into digital twins to support equipment monitoring, predictive maintenance, and operational decision-making.

Recent releases of COMSOL Multiphysics^® include tools for creating surrogate models from simulation data using advanced function-approximation methods such as deep neural networks (DNNs) and Gaussian process regression. These reduced-order models can deliver near-instant results, enabling fast design iteration and real-time performance evaluation. In addition, GPU acceleration can significantly reduce computation time by speeding up both surrogate model training and full-scale simulation solves.

Join us in this session to learn about the development and deployment of simulation apps and digital twins for power and energy applications.