How simulation software is improving medical devices

Mathematical and numerical modelling is one of our core tools at Sagentia, and we use our expertise across a range of disciplines: structural mechanics, fluid flows, heat transfer, acoustics and RF fields, to name just a few.

Traditionally, numerical simulation is done by full-time analysts, experts in software tools developed for a particular industry. But our analyses routinely cross discipline boundaries, and are too variable to justify employing permanent analysis specialists.

This is where COMSOL Multiphysics is uniquely suited to our needs. It’s an integrated software environment for creating physics-based models and simulation apps with a short learning curve and a broad range of ‘predefined’ physics, which can be adapted to whatever question we have, not whatever question the developers expected us to have. All disciplines can be combined into a single simulation by our team of physicists and applied mathematicians.

The software tackles complex structural mechanics analysis problems by combining multiple element types. This enabled us to iterate and refine a design for a very large, complex and interconnected medical device, more quickly and with a smaller team than was traditionally possible.

The ‘general extrusion’ operator was used to create mathematical relations between nearby nodes, replicating the effects of bolted joints and welds without having to model them explicitly. 

The software’s powerful visualisation capabilities also enabled us to explore and communicate what goes on inside the structure. This was useful, not just to satisfy us that our design would work, but to convince clients that the novel arrangement of components could work. A pretty picture, backed up by accurate maths, is a powerful argument.