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Convergence problem

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Hello! Just a little survey, what will you do firstly if you find the solution does not converge of your model? What are the parameters that you will consider first to achieve the convergence of the solution in COMSOL?


1 Reply Last Post 2022年3月2日 GMT-5 08:58
Jeff Hiller COMSOL Employee

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Posted: 2 years ago 2022年3月2日 GMT-5 08:58
Updated: 2 years ago 2022年3月2日 GMT-5 09:08

The first thing I'd do is ask myself whether the mathematical problem I am asking the software to solve actually has a unique solution. Many PDEs don't have solutions or have multiple solutions.

The above may seem like an obvious thing to say, but you'll find in this Discussion Forum instances of users being baffled by lack of convergence when they have either insufficiently constrained their problems (e.g. no reference pressure in a flow problem, forgetting to remove all rigid body motions in structural mechanics, no imposed potential anywhere in electric currents or electrostatics,...) or over-constrained them (e.g. conductive heat transfer with a heat source and no flux conditions on all boundaries), or are in some other way trying to solve a mathematical problem that simply doesn't have a unique solution.

So that's where I look first.

Next, I look at all my physics settings as well as all definitions that they depend on, to make sure that I really did set up the model to match exactly the mathematical problem that I intended to set up.

Only after checking those things do I look into the more technical aspects and dig into solver settings and mesh settings.

Best,

Jeff

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Jeff Hiller
The first thing I'd do is ask myself whether the mathematical problem I am asking the software to solve actually has a unique solution. Many PDEs don't have solutions or have multiple solutions. The above may seem like an obvious thing to say, but you'll find in this Discussion Forum instances of users being baffled by lack of convergence when they have either insufficiently constrained their problems (e.g. no reference pressure in a flow problem, forgetting to remove all rigid body motions in structural mechanics, no imposed potential anywhere in electric currents or electrostatics,...) or over-constrained them (e.g. conductive heat transfer with a heat source and no flux conditions on all boundaries), or are in some other way trying to solve a mathematical problem that simply doesn't have a unique solution. So that's where I look first. Next, I look at all my physics settings as well as all definitions that they depend on, to make sure that I really did set up the model to match exactly the mathematical problem that I intended to set up. Only after checking those things do I look into the more technical aspects and dig into solver settings and mesh settings. Best, Jeff

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