Approach to controlling a comsol model from matlab

Hello Matlab-experts,

I was hoping anyone would be able to help me with this rather conceptual problem.

I have a fully developed 3D-model of a thermoelectric device (also known as TEC; a solid-state element based on the laws of thermoelectricity capable of converting heat into electricity and vice versa), created with the FEM-software COMSOL Multiphysics. My goal is now to find and tune a PID- or PDF controller based on that model. Comsol's capabilities for controller design and testing is very, very basic and does not suffice for my tasks. Coming across Matlab's sheer infinite possibilities regarding the control topic simply amazes me; such a great software! I have just gone through the majority of webinars on the topics "system identification toolbox" and "control design" which were all very helpful. However, one topic I was hoping to come across in the webinars was a specific case like mine, where a model had been created by another software package and now requires an extensive control design implemented with Simulink and relevant Matlab tools. A similar problem to mine was discussed during one of the webinars in which a CAD object was created with SolidWorks and imported into SimMechanics as an XML-file (.stl) for further control design. However, Comsol doesn't offer this option plus importing my complicated 3D-model into Matlab would probably create more porblems (I think). That's why I would like to keep the model at Comsol but maybe create a "window" in Matlab from where data can be exchanged in order to find the a controller (or a number of controllers since gain scheduling will be a big part of it since thermoelectric device responses are very much affected by several external factors (disturbances) ).

How would one tackle this approach? What is the strategy here? Do I have to find a Matlab-model of a Comsol-model in order to get controllers?

I was hoping one of you experts could help me with this particular problem and lead me in the right direction.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance. Marcus

[skp]

Hello Marcus,

I am working on similar grounds and trying to integrate spice modelling of TE devices with matlab and comsol. I have started to build a comsol model. I would be grateful to you if you could help me out with the comsol modelling part.

Thanks, Karthik

[cxq317]

Hello Marcus,

I have the same issue, FEA model in COMSOL and want to do complex control in Matlab. Have you figured out how to deal with the link between these two softwares?

Thanks

X.Cao