Simulation of electrical machines - A FEM-BEM coupling scheme

TL;DR

This paper introduces a FEM-BEM coupling scheme for simulating electrical machines with moving parts, reducing modeling complexity and avoiding re-meshing, thus providing a versatile and accurate simulation approach.

Contribution

A novel FEM-BEM coupling method that handles moving and stationary parts without re-meshing or special interface treatments, improving ease of use and accuracy.

Findings

Reduces modeling costs for electrical machine simulations

Eliminates the need for re-meshing in moving parts

Provides a versatile and accurate simulation tool

Abstract

Electrical machines commonly consist of moving and stationary parts. The field simulation of such devices can be very demanding if the underlying numerical scheme is solely based on a domain discretization, such as in case of the Finite Element Method (FEM). Here, a coupling scheme based on FEM together with Boundary Element Methods (BEM) is presented that neither hinges on re-meshing techniques nor deals with a special treatment of sliding interfaces. While the numerics are certainly more involved the reward is obvious: The modeling costs decrease and the application engineer is provided with an easy-to-use, versatile, and accurate simulation tool.