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Solver Elmer

In one sentence: Add an Elmer multiphysics solver to the analysis — define what physics to solve by adding equation objects alongside it.

Overview

Workbench: FEM
Menu: FEM → Solve → Solver Elmer

Adds an Elmer solver object to the analysis. Elmer is an open-source multiphysics solver for electrostatics, electromagnetics, fluid flow (Navier-Stokes), heat conduction, and solid deformation. It must be installed and configured in Edit → Preferences → FEM → Elmer.

Unlike CalculiX, Elmer has no built-in analysis type — you define what to solve by adding equation objects (e.g. Heat Equation, Flow Equation) to the analysis container.

Elmer workflow

  1. Add Solver Elmer to the analysis.
  2. Add one or more equation objects.
  3. Add materials with properties matching the equations.
  4. Add boundary conditions matching the equations.
  5. Run the solver.

Key properties

Property Description
Simulation Type Steady State / Transient / Scanning
Time Step Intervals Number of time steps (transient)
Timestep Size Size of each time step (s)
Output Frequency Write results every N steps

Common mistakes and pitfalls

Equations without Elmer solver

Elmer equation objects are meaningless without a Solver Elmer object in the analysis. Add Solver Elmer before adding equations.

Elmer requires Gmsh mesh groups

Elmer identifies boundary faces by group names. Use Gmsh + FEM Mesh Group — not Netgen — for all Elmer analyses.

See also