Description: Time-harmonic eddy current analysis is a new feature in Abaqus that is under active development. This capability should be treated as an initial offering of a more complete set of future capabilities.

You can now calculate the eddy currents that are induced in a conductor placed within a time-harmonic magnetic field, as shown in Figure 6–2.

The magnetic field can be generated by a coil carrying a time-harmonic current at a known frequency, or it can be specified directly by means of appropriate boundary conditions/loads. The solution procedure is based on obtaining a time-harmonic solution to Maxwell's equations describing electromagnetic phenomena under the low-frequency assumption and, hence, accounts for strong coupling between the electric and the magnetic fields. This procedure is available with two-dimensional (planar) and three-dimensional continuum elements and is based on an element edge-based interpolation of fields instead of the usual node-based interpolation. The eddy current analysis can be driven by prescribed volume and/or surface current density vectors or by prescribed values of the magnetic vector potential on surfaces. Magnetic permeability must be defined everywhere in the domain, and electrical conductivity must be defined in the conductor regions.

The eddy current analysis provides output such as Joule heat dissipation or magnetic body force intensity, which can be transferred to drive a subsequent heat transfer, coupled temperature-displacement, or purely mechanical analysis. This allows for modeling the interactions of the electromagnetic fields with thermal and/or mechanical fields in a sequentially coupled manner.

References: