skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Verification of high-order mixed FEM solution of transient Magnetic diffusion problems

Journal Article · · IEEE Transaction on Magnetics
OSTI ID:884765

We develop and present high order mixed finite element discretizations of the time dependent electromagnetic diffusion equations for solving eddy current problems on 3D unstructured grids. The discretizations are based on high order H(grad), H(curl) and H(div) conforming finite element spaces combined with an implicit and unconditionally stable generalized Crank-Nicholson time differencing method. We develop three separate electromagnetic diffusion formulations, namely the E (electric field), H (magnetic field) and the A-{phi} (potential) formulations. For each formulation, we also provide a consistent procedure for computing the secondary variables F (current flux density) and B (magnetic flux density), as these fields are required for the computation of electromagnetic force and heating terms. We verify the error convergence properties of each formulation via a series of numerical experiments on canonical problems with known analytic solutions. The key result is that the different formulations are equally accurate, even for the secondary variables J and B, and hence the choice of which formulation to use depends mostly upon relevance of the Natural and Essential boundary conditions to the problem of interest. In addition, we highlight issues with numerical verification of finite element methods which can lead to false conclusions on the accuracy of the methods.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-48
OSTI ID:
884765
Report Number(s):
UCRL-JRNL-212411; TRN: US200616%%98
Journal Information:
IEEE Transaction on Magnetics, Vol. 42, Issue 1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English