Recent Developments in the Electromagnetism Module: A New 2D Axi-Symmetric EM Solver

An electromagnetism module has being developed in LS-DYNA for coupled mechanical/thermal/electromagnetic simulations. More recently, a new 2D axi-symmetric version of this solver was introduced, allowing much faster simulations. In this solver, the EM equations are solved in a 2D plane, and the 2D EM fields, Lorentz force and Joule heating are then expanded to 3D elements by rotations around the axis. This allows to couple the 2D EM with 3D mechanics and thermal, thus keeping all the LS-DYNA 3D capabilities available. The user needs to provide a 3D mesh with rotational symmetry, either on the full 360 degrees or a small slice. The 2D-EM eddy-current problems are solved using a coupled FEM-BEM method, both based on differential forms. It can be coupled to different external circuits, including imposed currents, imposed voltage or (R,L,C) circuits. It also allows the coupling of different parts in a single circuit in order to have complex geometries like, e.g., spiral coils. It works both in serial and MPP, and is available for the eddy-current solver, soon to be extended to the induced heating and resistive heating ones. A contact capability will also soon be introduced. The solver will be briefly introduced, followed by presentations of 2D/3D benchmarks and real life examples.