Industry Predictions for 2025: COMSOL

By, Mads Herring Jensen and Henrik Ekström from COMSOL

Mads Herring Jensen

Henrik Ekström

2025 Predictions for Modeling and Simulation: Spotlights on Acoustics and Electrochemistry

As engineers in a variety of industries increasingly rely on modeling and simulation to optimize design, we are continually inspired by how our users are breaking new ground with the COMSOL Multiphysics® software. Two fields where we see the use of simulation-aided design constantly evolving are acoustics and electrochemistry, with a particular focus within the latter on the development of batteries and battery management systems (BMS). In 2025, we expect to see the following trends affect the use of modeling and simulation in these areas.

Trends in Acoustics Simulation

In the coming year, we will see improved design and virtual testing of acoustic spaces like open-plan offices, car cabins, and conference-speaker meeting rooms, using detailed time-domain modeling methods made viable by recent advances in solver and hardware technology, e.g., time-explicit modeling on GPUs. Historically, acoustics simulation has been largely focused on solving problems in the frequency domain with models based on the Helmholtz equation; damping and dissipation models are simply easier to formulate in the frequency domain. To get accurate results in time-domain room acoustics simulations, absorbing surfaces must be modeled accurately. This is now achieved using new mathematical techniques to transform damping models from the frequency domain to the time domain. These efficient new techniques allow acoustical engineers to set up realistic impedance conditions — of, say, a sound absorbing panel in an office space or a seat in a car — and even model porous materials directly in the time domain.

The transformation techniques can be generalized to other physics and thus are appearing in fields like electroacoustics. Detailed frequency-domain models of transducers or submodels of transducers (like electromagnetic motor parts) can be efficiently lumped and transformed to the time domain as reduced-order models (ROMs). ROMs can be used in digital twins or for system simulations. When developing and improving noise-cancellation algorithms in headsets or earbuds, efficient time-domain models are necessary. The large-signal (nonlinear) behavior of transducers can now also be handled in this efficient manner to, for example, predict distortion phenomena. We will definitely see this seamless integration between frequency and time used to a larger extent in 2025.

We are also seeing a push for the simulation of full systems in microacoustics applications such as smartphones, hearing aids, and earbuds. This includes both the device as well as the standardized test setups. At the millimeter scale, the relevant thermoviscous effects need to be included to accurately predict the acoustic performance of the devices. This trend is driven by the continued development of new numerical formulations, efficient new solver technology, and general hardware improvements. In 2025, we will see these advances being combined with the now-standard and seamless integration of lumped electroacoustic transducer models.

Trends in Electrochemistry and Battery Modeling and Simulation

When it comes to engineering larger battery modules and packs — where individual cells are expanding and their energy and power densities are increasing — we expect to see continued investment in finding optimized cooling strategies. Modeling and simulation will play a key role in this, as engineers will need to simplify battery cell models to perform simulations on larger geometries at an acceptable computational cost while maintaining enough detail to achieve sufficient accuracy in results.

With continued emphasis being placed on understanding and predicting battery aging, a growing area of research is focused on the coupled electrochemical–structural mechanics phenomena that arise due to expansion and contraction during the operation of graphite- and silicon-based electrodes. These intercoupled, or multiphysics, effects include particle stress and cracking, poroelastic “breathing” of the electrolyte into and out of the electrodes, and swelling of the entire battery cell. Going forward, researchers will need to lean heavily on multiphysics simulations to better analyze and compensate for battery expansion and contraction.

We will also start to see the proliferation of digital twins to model existing batteries in electric vehicles and stationary systems this year. In battery management systems of these applications, the increased computational performance of today’s electronics is starting to make it possible to use fairly advanced models. Some twenty years ago, such models could only be used in research conducted using desktop computers, but today it is fully feasible to integrate them onboard a vehicle or into a device. The growing complexity of the models used in these control systems and the advent of digital twins representing the physical battery will increase the demands on effective and efficient parameter estimation methods using optimization solvers.

Looking to the Year Ahead

While we’re excited to see how modeling and simulation evolves in electrochemistry and acoustics in 2025, these of course aren’t the only physics disciplines where we expect to see advancements throughout the year. As the capabilities of simulation software progress rapidly toward real-world accuracy at the same time that efficient surrogate modeling techniques and powerful new computational resources have become available to users, we expect to see the pace of innovation accelerate this year across industries.

About Henrik Ekström, Director of Development, Electrochemistry

Henrik Ekström is the technology director for electrochemistry at COMSOL. Prior to joining COMSOL in 2010, Henrik worked at various fuel cell startup firms in Sweden. He received his PhD in chemical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.

About Mads Herring Jensen, Development Manager, Acoustics

Mads Herring Jensen joined COMSOL in 2011 and is the technology manager for the acoustics products. Mads has a PhD in computational fluid dynamics from the Technical University of Denmark. Before joining COMSOL, he worked in the hearing aid industry for five years as an acoustic finite element expert.

Tags: acoustics simulation, battery aging, battery management systems, battery modeling, digital twins, electroacoustics, electrochemical-structural mechanics, electrochemistry simulation, GPU modeling, microacoustics, multiphysics simulation, noise-cancellation algorithms, optimization solvers, real-world simulation accuracy., reduced-order models, solver technology, swelling effects, thermal management, thermoviscous effects, time-domain modeling

Category: Predictions

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