Numerical Modeling and Analysis of an Electromagnetic Device Using a Weakly Coupled Magnetostatic-Mechanical Formulation and the 2D Finite Element Method

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology to program the weak coupling between magnetic and structural vector fields in an electromagnetic device modeled in two dimensions. The magneto-mechanical coupling phenomenon is present in electromagnetic devices where magnetic forces cause displacements in metallic materials. This work proposes a numerical solution to this problem by applying the 2D finite element method to the governing equations of this coupled multiphysics phenomenon. The well-known formulation yields accurate results; however, it is often not properly integrated into a computer program. This manuscript proposes a flexible and intuitive methodology for the implementation of the complex mathematics involved in this phenomenon into a computer program. The computer code receives the input parameters, discretizes the geometry by generating a 2D finite mesh, solves the resulting equations using the finite element method, and finally exports the results of the magnetic ang mechanical fields. The modeling is performed using an open-source platform for programming the finite element method in the programming language Python, and afterwards, the results are compared against a commercial software as validation of the proposed numerical approach. The novel magneto-mechanical coupling methodology is used to solve an engineering application, namely an electromagnetic actuator.