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I have a time dependent heat conduction simulation and need to plot the average temperature of some area over time. However, the exported table data apparently uses only a few data points and interpolates in between.

More specifically, I have some block of material (aluminum) that is heated periodically at some surface. I am now interested in temperature peaks at exactly this surface over time. I have defined the heating function, the surface, and have calculated the average temperature of the surface under observation over time. However, when I plot the exported data

Coarse Temperature curve over fine heating curve

the temperature data is really, REALLY coarse. The heating data however is very fine. Comsol seems to interpolate between very few points. Calculating with a finer temporal resolution won't fix it.

How can I tell Comsol to evaluate the temperature at every step?

TylerH
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PatrickKF
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  • It does look pretty coarse. How have you defined your time steps? Would you show that function? – rdipert Jun 21 '21 at 12:52
  • Hi! Time steps for the time-dependent calculation are 0.1 ms. Simulation time range is from 0 s to roughly 1 s (0.98 s, periodicity of the heating process) – PatrickKF Jun 21 '21 at 13:20

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OK, I found the answer:

https://www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/1254

Turns out the timesteps the solver chooses are completely separate from the ones the user can define for the simulation. This honestly makes me question the usefulness of the initial definition of the timesteps. It really seems to be just an additional hoop for people to be dependent on support....

Solution: Turn the maximum timestep in Solution/Time Dependent Solver to an acceptable minimal value.

PatrickKF
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  • Yeah, that's a detail you have to look out for when you're working with any of those results graphics. It's annoying but it also allows you to get what you want plotted without needing to another application. Happy to see you figured it out. – rdipert Jun 22 '21 at 14:07