FEMLAB To COMSOL

The First version of FEMLAB (now called as COMSOL) which I used was FEMLAB 2.3 from then to now FEMLAB has become COMSOL and many new version have come with more capabilities and modelling capabilities and many new features, along with one of the most Important COMSOL Script.

Partial differential equations form the mathematical foundation for a host of important areas in engineering and physics. FEMLAB provides a powerful interactive environment for modeling and solving scientific and engineering problems which base on partial differential equations.

Using FEMLAB one can model strongly nonlinear coupled multiphysics applications with ease. There is no inherent limitation on the simultaneous simulation of many physical phenomena. FEMLAB can handle (systems of) second and first order partial differential equations in one, two and three space dimensions. They are discretized by the finite element method. The (extensible) element library uses mostly polynomial elements on triangles (in 2D) and tetrahedra (in 3D), respectively. Some elements are available which are adapted to be applied special applications.
From the point of view of applicability, it is the multiphysics feature and the extensibility which distinguish FEMLAB. A host of models from different areas of applications are prepared in an easily accessible manner (the so-called applications modes) which can be combined by simple drag-and-drop techniques into complex multiphysics models.
A graphical user interface allows for an efficient graphical design of rather complex geometries in one, two and three dimensions. The powerful capabilities of FEMLAB give immediately rise to the question whether the user has to pay in order to use such a convenient tool. There are a number of very advanced software packages on the market competing with FEMLAB. Often, they have some emphasis on certain applications areas. This allows for the use of numerical algorithms being more adapted to the application at hand. Compared to that, the algorithms in FEMLAB must be of a more general nature in order to cover the broad spectrum of applications FEMLAB is intended for. The latest version of FEMLAB is 3.0a. It distinguishes itself from all previous versions in that all computational kernels have been reimplemented in C++. The previous versions are implemented in MATLAB. While opening all the features of MATLAB to be used in FEMLAB it has the drawback of slowing down the numerics and increasing the memory requirements. Even if FEMLAB 3.0a can be run standalone, an interface to MATLAB is available such that the numerical kernel of FEMLAB can be used as a computing server.

In the first FEMLAB conference held in 2005 at many paces around the world COMSOL announced that FEMLAB will now be called as COMSOL and a New feature was also released called Script which gives power to the user to write user defined function related to their simulation models.