Get Started with Partial Differential Equation Toolbox

Partial Differential Equation Toolbox™ provides functions for solving structural mechanics, heat transfer, and general partial differential equations (PDEs) using finite element analysis.

You can perform linear static analysis to compute deformation, stress, and strain. For modeling structural dynamics and vibration, the toolbox provides a direct time integration solver. You can analyze a component’s structural characteristics by performing modal analysis to find natural frequencies and mode shapes. You can model conduction-dominant heat transfer problems to calculate temperature distributions, heat fluxes, and heat flow rates through surfaces. You can perform electrostatic and magnetostatic analyses, and also solve other standard problems using custom PDEs.

Partial Differential Equation Toolbox lets you import 2D and 3D geometries from STL or mesh data You can automatically generate meshes with triangular and tetrahedral elements. You can solve PDEs by using the finite element method, and postprocess results to explore and analyze them.

Tutorials

• Deflection Analysis of Bracket
  

  Analyze a bracket under an applied load and determine the maximal deflection by using the unified workflow.

• Heat Transfer in Block with Cavity
  

  Find the heat distribution in a block with a cavity by using the unified workflow.

• Electrostatic Potential in Air-Filled Frame
  

  Find the electrostatic potential in an air-filled annular quadrilateral frame by using the unified workflow.

• Poisson's Equation on Unit Disk
  

  Solve a simple elliptic PDE in the form of Poisson's equation on a unit disk.

• Minimal Surface Problem
  

  Solve a simple nonlinear elliptic problem.

About Solving PDEs in Partial Differential Equation Toolbox

• Equations You Can Solve Using PDE Toolbox
  

  Types of scalar PDEs and systems of PDEs that you can solve using Partial Differential Equation Toolbox.

• Units of Measurements
  

  Units of measurement for specifying physical properties in PDE Toolbox.