Patent Document ID: 5408638
Application ID: 04808111

Base Claim:
1. A method of simulating a physical quantity of a physical quantity of a known physical phenomenon through material analysis of a partial differential equation, the method comprising steps executed by a computer, the steps include: receiving from an operator physical information representing a simulation subject, said physical information including information representing a shape of a region of the simulation subject, information representing a name of at least one material constituting the region, and information representing a boundary condition which the physical quantity of the known physical phenomenon should satisfy on at least one boundary of the region; searching automatically by the computer, a material database based on a name assigned to a material and determining one of a constant value independent of the physical quantity and a value dependent on the physical quantity, as a material constant; determining, automatically by the computer, the partial differential equation used for the simulation subject in accordance with the physical information and equation database; detecting, automatically by the computer, a mathematical characteristic of the determined partial differential equation, in accordance with the structure of the determined partial differential equation and the determined material constant; retrieving, automatically by the computer, a solution algorithm for numerical analysis of the determined partial differential equation from an algorithm database, using the mathematical characteristic; and numerically. automatically by the computer, analyzing the determined partial differential equation for the simulation subject using the retrieved solution algorithm.

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Claim 2:
2. A simulation method according to claim 1, wherein said step of numerically analyzing includes the steps of: selecting one simulation program for numerically analyzing said determined partial differential equation using the retrieved solution, from a plurality of predetermined simulation programs, each of which is provided for one of a plurality of partial differential equations to be respectively numerically analyzed in accordance with predetermined specific solution algorithms for a corresponding one of the plurality of partial differential equations; and executing the selected simulation program for the simulation subject represented by the physical information, in accordance with the physical information.