10/7/2014 Finite Element Method Magnetics: AirCore

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OctaveFEMM Example: Air Core Coil Inductance
Calculation
David Meeker
dmeeker@ieee.org
July 28, 2006

Introduction
As an example of the way that Octave can be use to automate calculations in FEMM, an Octave function
is presented which uses FEMM to computes the inductance of a cylindrical air-cored coil of arbitrary
dimensions. For comparison, an empirical formula for inductance is implemented in a second Octave
function
Finite Element Inductance Calculation
The Matlab function below computes the inductance of an arbitrary coil:
function y=inductance(n,ri,ro,z)
openfemm;
newdocument(0);
mi_probdef(0,'inches','axi',1e-8,0,30);
mi_drawrectangle(ri,-z/2,ro,z/2);
r=2*max([ro,ri,z]);
mi_drawarc(0,-r,0,r,180,5);
mi_drawline(0,-r,0,r);
mi_addcircprop('icoil',1,1);
mi_addblocklabel((ri+ro)/2,0);
mi_addblocklabel(0.75*r,0);
mi_addmaterial('coil',1,1,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0);
mi_addmaterial('air' ,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0);
mi_addboundprop('abc',0,0,0,0,0,0,1/(r*0.0254*pi*4.e-7),0,2);
mi_selectlabel((ri+ro)/2,0);
mi_setblockprop('coil',0,r/20,'icoil',0,0,n);
mi_clearselected;
mi_selectlabel(0.75*r,0);
mi_setblockprop('air',0,r/100,'<None>',0,0,0);
mi_clearselected;
mi_selectarcsegment(r,0);
mi_setarcsegmentprop(5,'abc',0,0);
mi_saveas('c:\\femm42\\examples\\tmp.fem');
mi_analyze;
mi_loadsolution;
10/7/2014 Finite Element Method Magnetics: AirCore
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c=mo_getcircuitproperties('icoil');
y=c(3);
closefemm;
The function takes as arguments n, the number of turns in the coil; ri, the inner radius of the coil in
inches; ro, the outer radius of the coil in inches, and z, the axial length of the coil in inches.
The function creates the coils cross-section inside a spherical region which has a radius of twice the
largest dimension of the coil. An asymptotic boundary condition is applied to the boundary of the
spherical region to mimic the behavior of unbounded space, i.e. so that the finite solution domain has no
great effect on solution accuracy. A circuit, icoil, is defined carrying one amp. A region with n turns is
assigned to the coil, and the region outside the coil is defined as air.
The function analyzes the geometry and loads the solution into the postprocessor. One of the computed
properties of icoil is flux linkage. Since the coil current is one amp, the coil inductance is numerically the
same as the flux linkage.
Empirical Formula
A more detailed discussion of the Wheeler Formula for the inductance of a multi-turn air cored solenoid is
presented at http://home.earthlink.net/~jimlux/hv/wheeler.htm. With the following definitions:
an empirical fit of coil inductance is:
where again, ri, ro, and z are in units of inches. An Octave function that implements the Wheeler formula
is wheeler.m
Comparison
In several tests considering coils a square cross-section, a tall, thin coil, and a short, fat coil, similar
answers are obtained by both FEMM and the applicable Wheeler formula.
Dimensions FEMM Inductance Wheeler Formula
n=100,ri=1,ro=2,z=1 0.64707 mH 0.64286 mH
n=100,ri=1,ro=1.25,z=4 0.23081 mH 0.22376 mH
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n=100,ri=0.25,ro=2,z=0.25 0.40955 mH 0.38208 mH