A new double dogleg nonlinear solver provides improved convergence for contact modeling in structural mechanics. In the Structural Mechanics Module and the MEMS Module, the double dogleg nonlinear solver is selected by default when a stationary study is generated and contact features are present in the model. For the majority of contact problems this solver has more stable convergence properties than the Newton solver, which is the general default solver. Using the same settings, the double dogleg solver tends to be somewhat slower than the Newton solver on problems where both solvers converge. It is, however, often possible to user larger load steps when using the double dogleg solver.
Updated PARDISO direct linear solver, which can improve solver performance for large models and many cores.
On Linux clusters COMSOL now uses Hydra instead of the MPD. You no longer need to start MPD:s before starting COMSOL.