multiphysical

Multiphysics, often written multiphysics or multphysics, refers to the study and simulation of systems in which multiple physical processes interact. Problems in this area involve coupling phenomena such as fluid flow and heat transfer, structural deformation and thermal effects, electromagnetism and mechanics, chemical reactions and mass transport, or phase change. The central aim is to predict how these interactions affect system behavior more accurately than single-physics models.

Mathematically, they are described by coupled partial differential equations for fields such as velocity, pressure, temperature, displacement, and electric potential. Coupling can be strong or weak, occurring through boundary conditions, source terms, or material properties that depend on other fields. Numerical approaches are typically monolithic (solving all equations together) or partitioned (solving each physics separately with iterative coupling). Time stepping and spatial discretization must be coordinated, and stiffness or disparate time scales can complicate stability and convergence.

Applications span engineering design, energy, electronics, biomedical engineering, and environmental modeling. Common domains include fluid-structure interaction, thermo-mechanics, electro-thermal-chemical systems, and magnetohydrodynamics. Software tools and libraries are designed to support multiphysics simulations, including commercial packages and open-source frameworks, often providing predefined couplings and customizable solvers. The field emphasizes validation against experiments and sensitivity analysis, and it continues to evolve with advances in high-performance computing and model order reduction.