Finite Element Method for Maxwells Equations

Ferienakademie Sarntal 2007

Course 9: Numerical Simulation: From Models to Software
Eugenio Delgado da Carvalheira

1. Maxwells Equations
Basically, there is a single set of equations governing all electromagnetic phenomena,
Maxwells equations. They are comprised of four first-order partial differential equations
linking the fundamental electromagnetic quantities, the electric field intensity E (V/m), the
magnetic induction B (Vs/m2), the magnetic field intensity H (A/m), the electric flux density D
(As/m2), the electric current density J (A/m2), and the space charge density qe (As/m3).
The four partial differential equations (PDEs), stated as Maxwells equations in differential
form are:

r
r r D
H = J +
t
r
r
B
E =
t
r
D = qe
r
B = 0.

Strictly speaking, these equations are posed over the entire space R3 and they have to be
supplemented by the following material laws, where denotes the electric conductivity (S/m),
Ji an intrinsic current density (A/m2), the electric permittivity (As/Vm) and the magnetic
permeability (Vs/Am):

r r
r r r
J = J i + ( E + v B)
r
r
D = E
r
B = H .

The above combined equations form a set of partial differential equations, linear in space
and time, describing the behavior of electromagnetic waves. When electromagnetic fields
interact with materials, the equations can assume nonlinear forms.
Maxwells equations are based on experiments and empirical laws stated by Faraday,
Ampre, and Gauss. The great contribution of Maxwell was the unification of the different
equations to a set of partial differential equations, and the introduction of the displacement
current, which generalizes Ampres law.

1.1. Special Cases

In many practical applications one does not have to deal with the full system of Maxwells
Equations. In special situations assumptions allow substantial simplifications of the model.
Most of these assumptions concern the temporal variation of the fields.
A special class of time-dependent electromagnetic problems arises, when the displacement
currents can be neglected. This is suitable for low-frequency applications, and is called the
quasi-static case:
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r r
H = J
r
B = 0.
r
r
B
E =
t
r
D = qe .

r
B = H
r r
r r r
J = J i + ( E + v B)
r
r
D = E.

According to div B = 0, one can show that the magnetic field is solenoidal and therefore can
be described by the curl of a vector

r
r
B = A.

The vector A is called the magnetic vector potential. Substituting into Faradays law yields

r
r A
= 0.
E +

Thus, we have E = -A/t and the following curl-curl problem is obtained:

r
r
r r
r
A
A = Ji
+ (v A).

t
1

With more simplifications, namely assuming a static case with no moving bodies (v= 0), and
considering a 2D analysis, where Ji is an impressed current in z-direction we obtain the
following Poisson problem:

AZ = J Z .

2. Finite Element Method

Numerous different approaches have been used for the numerical treatment of the
electromagnetic problem. And several approaches have been explored for the spatial
discretization of the field equations.
Finite elements provide one of the alternatives for the discretization in space. They rely on
approximation spaces for the physical quantities that possess locally supported basis
functions.
The general approach of the Finite Element Method (FEM) can be resumed as: starting from
the partial differential equation (PDE) with given boundary conditions, we multiply it by
appropriate test functions and integrate over the whole simulation domain. As a second step,
we perform a partial integration and obtain the variational (weak) formulation. At this point, a
discretization of the whole domain using finite elements is required. For the discretization
triangular as well as quadrilateral finite elements can be used in 2D and tetrahedral as well
as hexahedral finite elements in 3D, among others. Applying Galerkins approximation
method results in the algebraic system of equations.
That means, the physical quantity of interest is approximated by functions, called shape
functions, and the solution of the algebraic system of equations leads to the physical quantity
in the discretization points.
For dynamic problems, a time discretization is also required.
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2.1. Weak Formulation

The partial differential equation (PDE) to be solved in its 2D form (derived in the previously
section) reads as follows:
Given:

Find:

A0

: 2

: .

A(t ) : [0, T ] 2
1
. AZ = J Z .

+ Boundary, interface and initial conditions

Now, we convert this formulation into a variational (weak) equation posed over suitable
function spaces. We multiply the equation by appropriate test function and apply Greens
first integral theorem, yielding to the following weak formulation:
Find A H 01 , such that

( )

(A) d = J i d ,

H 01 .

2.2. Finite Element Discretization

For the discretization of the variational problem, the infinite-dimensional space H 01 should be
replaced by a sequence of finite-dimensional spaces. We discretize the domain, using finite
elements, and expand the physical quantities in terms of a basis (shape) function.
In the Nodal finite element formulation, the quantities are interpolated by the following
ansatz, where Nen is the total number of finite element nodes present in the discretization:

A(hx ) = e =1 N a Aae
Nen

A h ( x ae ) = Aae
The degrees of freedom are assigned to the node of elements, and the interpolation function
(Na), also called shape function, has local support. Local support means that the value of the
basis function is weighted in such a way that it is one for the associated node, decay to zero
at the neighbor nodes, and has no influence at nodes far away in the grid.

Fig.1: 2D mesh

Fig.2: 1D basis function

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Fig.3: 2D basis function

Fig.4: 2D basis function with triangles

Nodal elements, as presented above, are constructed to calculate scalar quantities at the
nodes of the finite elements.

2.3. Linear System of Equations

Applying the approximation above for both magnetic vector potential (A) and test function ()
and substituting in our weak formulation, we obtain a linear system of equations:

r r
K A= f

Where the matrix K, normally called stiffness matrix, has the form:

K ij = (N i ) T

(N j ) d

Because of the local support characteristic of the basis function, the stiffness matrices
obtained are normally sparse.
And the right-hand-side, normally called load vector, has the form:

f i = N i J i d

For the calculation of the stiffness matrix, integration over the whole domain is necessary.
This integral can be approximated by a sum of integrals over each element, what leads to the
calculation of local stiffness matrix for each element. A numerical integration method should
be used to solve this numerically. The same principle is applied for calculation of the load
vector.
Finally, one can use a solver for the solution of the algebraic system of equations, obtaining
the magnetic vector potential at the discretization points.

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3. Discretization with Edge Finite Elements

The use of nodal finite elements for the Poisson problem in the 2D case leads to good
results. In 3D calculations, however, where we have the curl-curl problem presented also in
section 2.1, the use of nodal finite elements leads to inaccurate results.
In this case, one can make use of Edge finite elements. The Edge Elements, also called
Ndlec, are defined as vector elements, i.e. the basis functions of these elements represent
vector quantities. The degrees of freedom are assigned to the edges of elements, rather than
to the nodes.
With edge finite elements the magnetic vector potential A is approximated by the following
ansatz:
ne

A A h = E k Ake
k =1

where ne defines the number of edges in the finite element mesh, Ek the edge shape function
associated with the k-th edge, and Ake the degree of freedom. The degree of freedom is the
line integral of the magnetic vector potential along the k-th edge:

r
Ake = A ds
k

For tetrahedron elements, one can show that the following interpolation function can be
used:

E1 = N 1N 2 N 2 N 1
It represents the vector basis function along edge 1 defined by nodes 1 and 2, and N1 and N2
the nodal basis function in node 1 and 2, respectively.
To obtain for the tangential component of Ek the value 1, we have to scale the vector function
with the length of the corresponding edge, resulting in the following set of edge finite
elements for the tetrahedron:

E1 = ( N 1 N 2 N 2 N 1 ) l1
E 2 = ( N 1 N 3 N 3 N 1 ) l 2
E3 = ( N 1 N 4 N 4 N 1 ) l3
E 4 = ( N 2 N 3 N 3 N 2 ) l 4
E 5 = ( N 4 N 2 N 2 N 4 ) l5
E 6 = ( N 3 N 4 N 4 N 3 ) l6 .
Fig.5: Tetrahedral edge element

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4. Simulation Example
In the following example, we performed a simulation using the finite element method with
both nodal finite elements and edge finite elements.
At this example we considered the calculation of the magnetic induction within a
ferromagnetic cube surrounded with air. A parameter jump in the magnetic permeability
across the cube/air interface by a factor of 1000 is assumed. The boundary conditions for the
magnetic vector potential are applied in such a way that we would expect a uniform magnetic
induction within the ferromagnetic cube. Both discretization methods (nodal and edge finite
elements) were used and the results presented below. We can observe that the calculation
with nodal elements results in a non-uniform field.

Fig.6: Nodal elements

Fig.7: Edge elements

References
1. M. Kaltenbacher, Numerical Simulation of Mechatronic Sensor and Actuators,
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2004.
2. S. Zaglmayr, High Order Finite Element Methods for Electromagnetic Field
Computation, Dissertation, Universitt Linz, 2006.
3. R. Beck, P. Deuflhard, R. Hiptmair, R. H. W. Hoppe, B. Wohlmuth, Adaptive multilevel
methods for edge element discretizations of Maxwells equations, Springer-Verlag,
Surveys on Mathematics for Industry (1999) 8: 271-312.

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