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Industry Sector RTD Themati c Area Date Del i verabl e Nr
Consumer Goods Mul ti Physi cs and Anal ysi s 11th Sept 2002
Coupled Field Analysis using the ANSYS/Multiphysics Commercial FEA Code
David Ellis
Idac Ltd, London, United Kingdom
Summary
This presentation will describe the capabilities of the ANSYS

program for solving

Multiphysics Coupled Field solutions. An example analysis will be used to describe
these capabilities in a practical sense.
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Introduction - What is FEA?
Finite Element Analysis (FEA), is a way to simulate and determine the
response of a design to certain excitation and loading conditions
FEA is widely used in industry to:
- reduce amount of prototype testing
- simulate designs not suitable for prototype testing
Huge cost and time savings can be achieved with better designs.
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Introduction - About ANSYS
ANSYS is a complete FEA software package used by engineers worldwide in
virtually all fields of engineering: Structural, Thermal, Electromagnetics,
Electrical/electrostatics, and fluids, including Computational Fluid Dynamics
(CFD)
A partial list of industries in which ANSYS is used:
- Aerospace - Electronics & appliances
- Automotive - Power generation
- Biomedical - Micro electromechanical
- Civil & construction systems (MEMS) etc
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Introduction - About ANSYS
ANSYS/Multiphysics is the flagship ANSYS product which includes all
physics capabilities in all engineering disciplines i.e. structural, thermal,
low/high frequency electromagnetics, electrical/electrostatics, and CFD.
There are three main Coupled-Field analysis component products derived
from ANSYS/Multiphysics:
ANSYS/Mechanical - Structural & Thermal capabilities
ANSYS/Emag Electromagnetics & Electrostatics
ANSYS/FLOTRAN - CFD & Thermal capabilities
AI*EMAX High Frequency Electromagnetics (e.g. Antenna Design)
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Coupled-Field Analysis
Definition
A coupled-field analysis is an analysis that takes into account the interaction
(coupling) between two or more disciplines (fields) of engineering. The fact
that each field depends upon another makes it impossible to solve the
disciplines independently.
Example
Heating of a bimetallic bar requires a thermal-structural coupled field
analysis.
Piezoelectric analysis handles the interaction between the structural
deformation and electric fields.
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Applications in Electromagnetic/Mechanical Industries
Structural-electromagnetic coupling. Examples
are armature motion for a voltage fed actuator
and induced current in a coil due to motion of a
permanent magnet.
Fig. 1 An actuator
armature rotates, then
opens and closes the
air gap
Thermal-electromagnetic coupling. Examples
are induction heating of a bar to temper (heat
treat) the bar, bus bar temperature rise and coil
temperature rise of a voltage fed winding.
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Applications in Electromagnetic/Mechanical Industries
Electromagnetic-electrical circuit simulation.
Example is a coil connected to an external
circuit with resistors, inductors, capacitors and
current/voltage supply
Fig. 3 Induction heating
of a bar
Fig. 2 Radial comb drive
Electrostatic-structural. Example is
electrostatic radial comb drive used in MEMS
Combinations of the above disciplines, e.g.
electrostatic-thermal-structural coupling, and
electro-thermal actuator
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Types of Coupled-Field Analysis
ANSYS is capable of performing steady state (static), harmonic and time-
varying transient analyses for 2D, axisymmetric and 3D models.
The sequential method involves two or more sequential analysis, each
belonging to a different field. The fields are coupled by applying results
from the first analysis as loads for the second analysis.
The sequential method is more efficient and flexible for coupling situations
which do not exhibit a high degree of non-linear interaction.
Two methods are available for coupled-field analysis.
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Types of Coupled-Field Analysis
Using the direct method, special coupled-field elements having structural,
thermal and electromagnetic degrees of freedom (DOF) are used.
Direct coupling is advantageous when the coupled-field interaction is highly
non-linear and is best solved in a single solution using a coupled
formulation containing all the necessary terms in the element matrices or
element load vectors.
Examples of direct coupling include piezoelectric analysis, conjugate heat
transfer with fluid flow, and circuit-EMAG analysis.
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Example - Loudspeaker Analysis
Fig. 5 Half model of the
loudspeaker
Solid model can be created in
ANSYS, or imported from other
CAD products in IGES, SAT,
Pro/ENGINEER, Unigraphics

,
CATIA, or Parasolid

format.
A wide range of Boolean
operations in 2D or 3D are
supported in ANSYS
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Fig. 6 Axisymmetric model
Two regions of air
(stationary and moving)
were added to the
structural model using
Boolean operation
The 3D model was simplified
into a 2D axisymmetric
model.
Loudspeaker Analysis Model
A coupled-field analysis using the direct method was chosen.
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A mixture of 4-noded
electromagnetic elements and
coupled-field elements are used
for the stationary and moving
regions, respectively.
Fig. 7 The FE mesh for the analysis
Loudspeaker Analysis FE Mesh
A robust, easy-to-use
ANSYS Mesh Control was
used to obtain finer mesh in
the gap region and coarse
mesh at the perimeter.
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Loudspeaker Analysis FE Mesh
Spring element
(Combin14) and mass
element (Mass21) are
added to the moving coil
to represent the
structural stiffness and
mass of the speaker cone
and the moving coil
Fig. 8 FE model with spring and mass
element added
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Loudspeaker Analysis Material Properties
ANSYS supports both linear and non-linear, as well as temperature-
dependent material properties.
In this analysis, a non-linear B-H curve was used for the steel and the
magnetisation curve of the ceramic magnet was input.
Typical material properties may be permeability, resistivity, coercive force or
non-linear B-H curve for electromagnetic analysis; elastic modulus,
Poissons ratio, density and plasticity (if required) for structural analysis;
and conductivity and film coefficient for thermal analysis.
A transient solution was performed for 20 cycles at 250Hz.
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Flux parallel condition was applied to the edge of the model. Excitation was
provided by the current density input into the coil element.
Goals for this analysis were to find the coil displacement and spring force
over a range of excitation frequencies. Eddy current is also of interest.
Loudspeaker Analysis Excitation and Boundary Conditions
The moving coil, structural air and spring elements were restrained in the
radial direction.
The displacement of all nodes in the coil have been coupled in the axial
(vertical) direction.
All the unused thermal DOF (Temp) have been constrained.
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Loudspeaker Analysis Results - General
Results are generally reviewed in the forms of contour plots, vector plots or
result listings.
Results may be values of DOFs (magnetic vector/scalar potential,
displacement, temperature etc.) or their derivatives such as flux density for
electromagnetic analysis, stress/strain and reaction forces for structural
analysis.
A time-history postprocessor is also available to review analysis results at
specific locations in the model as a function of time. The results can be
displayed as graph, or tabular listings, and math operations such as
differentiation and integration can also be performed.
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Fig. 9 Plot of flux
density,
overlapped with
the flux lines at
0.02 second
Loudspeaker Analysis Results
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Loudspeaker Analysis Results
Fig. 10 Graph of coil
displacement vs time
showing the effect of the
excitation frequency on
the natural frequency of
speaker cone/coil
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Fig. 11 Eddy current
generated in the steel at
0.02 second
Loudspeaker Analysis Results
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Loudspeaker Analysis Conclusion
Using a coupled field analysis the effect of the coil motion upon the various
design parameters of the electromagnetic system can be fully investigated.
The results may even be used in
further analysis such as thermal
response and/or structural
deformation if needed.
AVI shows results coupled with
acoustics.
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Other Applications
This technology offered by ANSYS/Multiphysics has also been used to
solve many other electromagnetic/structural problems such as actuators,
motors and alternators.
Hopefully this short presentation enables you to see and explore the
whole new world of opportunities for multi-disciplinary engineering
solutions in ANSYS!!!