Magnetic Field Simulation Software ? - Updated

[berkeman]

Magnetic Field Simulation Software ? -- Updated

I'd like to run some simulations of AC magnetic fields and several ferrite geometries. I can write the simulations myself, but would much prefer to save the time and just use a canned program if it will let me do what I want. Has anybody had experience with simulation programs like these? Thanks.

 

[dlgoff]

I don't have any experience with this berkeman but I found this site if it helps.

http://www.ansoft.com/news/press_release/021024.cfm"

Regards

 

[Ouabache]

Sorry, I haven't heard of any canned programs for this.
But now you've piqued my curiousity, what sort of geometries (shapes) are you simulating? (i get the feeling Biot-Savart's Law is going to be enlisted soon).

 

[berkeman]

Thanks folks for the replies. I need to be careful and circmspect for a bit about the patent and application of the technology for now. My employers would own it. I'll post the full deal when it clears one way or the other. Pretty cool applicaion of Physics in EE, actually.

 

[berkeman]

I don't have any experience with this berkeman but I found this site if it helps.

http://www.ansoft.com/news/press_release/021024.cfm"

Regards

Holy cow, dlgoff, you didn't say that they have a free starter version now! This may be just what I need for this initial simulation:

Ansoft Releases Free Version of Maxwell® Software

PITTSBURGH - October 24, 2002 - Ansoft Corporation (NASDAQ: ANST) today launched a new campaign to expand the use of its electromagnetic and electrostatic simulation software by offering a free subset of the company's commercially available Maxwell 2D.

The software, marketed as Maxwell SV, contains advanced 2D electric fields, AC/DC magnetic fields, and eddy-current solvers that engineering design professionals, professors, and students use to design components such as sensors, actuators, motors, and transformers.

Thanks a lot! I'll let you know what happens.

 

[berkeman]

Ah foooey. Turns out their free edition is only for student and educational use. In the download section of their website, they say at first that it's for general use, then later it's for student use, then at the final download they say professional use is okay.

But then you get to the license agreement and see this:

LICENSE.

Subject to the provisions contained herein, Ansoft grants to you a non-
exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Software contained herein. You are
authorized to use the SOFTWARE only for your own use. We offer the license as a
special service to the student and educational community and ask for your help in seeing
that its terms are not abused. Professional and commercial use is prohibited.

So I clicked No and exited the install. Guess I'll go see what their standard software costs. I obviously don't mind paying for software if I'm pretty sure it will do what I need.

 

[dlgoff]

Heck! You don't suspose if you talk to them they might make an exception?

 

[ZapperZ]

Our group use several software packages for EM field simulation and even help with the design of a few. We use Microwave Studios, FemLab, Vorpal, etc. However, these are not available for free. Vorpal, for example, is produced by Tech-X and continues to be part of that companies research program as it evolves.

Zz.

 

[berkeman]

Our group use several software packages for EM field simulation and even help with the design of a few. We use Microwave Studios, FemLab, Vorpal, etc. However, these are not available for free. Vorpal, for example, is produced by Tech-X and continues to be part of that companies research program as it evolves.

Zz.

Wow, the packages at femlab.com (redirects to comsol.com) look very useful -- I'll look into them more. Thanks Zz.

Pretty picture:

http://www.comsol.com/showroom/gallery/15.php?highlight=magnetic

 

[Mech_Engineer]

Wow, the packages at femlab.com (redirects to comsol.com) look very useful -- I'll look into them more. Thanks Zz.

Pretty picture:

http://www.comsol.com/showroom/gallery/15.php?highlight=magnetic

In my opinion Comsol would NOT be a very good choice for an FEA package. After going to several information seminars and using trial products, ANSYS easily came out on top in terms of power, documentation, and capabilities for my company's needs (we needed a fully-featured multiphysics package). I would definitely recommend ANSYS, either the Emag package or the Mechanical/Emag package would work well for you I would think. If you're stuck on GUI functionality, ANSYS Workbench 10 already supports some emag analyses, ANSYS Workbench 11 will support nearly all steady state and transient analysis modes (standard ANSYS already supports everything).

Comsol is lacking in the technical support that is really necessary in any FEA package, and their documentation is less than sub-par. From rumors I have heard (and what I have seen myself), the Comsol software was developed over the course of a year (with the code of FEMLAB in the background) to be able to make very pretty pictures with an attractive GUI, but they are all marketing and little technical expertise. From what it looks like to me, they are hoping to be bought up by a larger FEA company.

My 0.02

 

[juming]

berkeman ... Quick Field?

i'm an ee student... that's what we used in our field theory and electromagnetic theory courses.

The AC magnetic module can be used for time harmonic eddy current analysis. For a given frequency, it can analyze the magnetic field caused by alternating currents and, vise versa, electric currents (eddy currents) induced by an alternating magnetic field. This package is ideal for designing induction heating devices, transformers, solenoids, electric motors, and many other types of inductors.

www.quickfield.com

 

[bjret]

Try this...http://www.vizimag.com/

They have a 30 day trial on it. You can learn to use it in 30 minutes or less and can drag your components around with your mouse an re-run your analysis. You can also write scripts and animate the analysis.

bjret

 

[sai_2008]

I'd like to run some simulations of AC magnetic fields and several ferrite geometries. I can write the simulations myself, but would much prefer to save the time and just use a canned program if it will let me do what I want. Has anybody had experience with simulation programs like these? Thanks.

ANSYS can do it. But its pretty expensive...

 

[anup_UF]

Use FEMM
http://www.femm.info/wiki/HomePage
It is an open source code. They have used Matlab for coding and it gives out pretty accurate results.
you don't need to have MATLAB to run this tool.

All the Best !

 

[xhatemx]

I've been looking for a simulation program for the same purpose for quite some time .. Thanks for the links, hope anyone works

 

[xhatemx]

Try COMSOL Multiphysics

 

[akhebir]

Try EMS/SolidWorks from ElectromagneticWorks

www.emworks.com

 

[berkeman]

Thanks folks for the replies. I need to be careful and circmspect for a bit about the patent and application of the technology for now. My employers would own it. I'll post the full deal when it clears one way or the other. Pretty cool applicaion of Physics in EE, actually.

The patent finally issued, so I can mention what we were doing:

US patent 7,969,270

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-...rke+AND+AN/echelon&RS=IN/berke+AND+AN/echelon

We ended up buying Intusoft's Magnetics Designer software, but honestly, it wasn't all that easy to use or useful in the end. Building up prototypes with standard cores/bobbins and then soft-tooled cores and bobbins was more useful than the simulation software in this case.

The challenge was to build a communications transformer that was inexpensive, but had good rejection of external magnetic field noise. Our customers build our communication circuits (transceivers and transformers) into their devices, and often there are sources of B-field noise nearby. Either the device's own DC-DC converter power supply magnetics, or external motors, etc., nearby.

We had solved this problem in the past by building toroidal comm transformers with both the primary and secondary wound as full-circumferential windings, with a dielectric spacer between the two windings. When an external B-field passes through the toroidal core, the voltage induced in one half of the windings is opposed by the voltage induced in the other half of the coil's windings, and you get no net receive voltage induced by the B-field. In practice, the windings are not totally uniform, so there will be some small level of receive noise voltage induced by the interfering B-field.

But winding lots of turns on a small toroidal core is an expensive process, and for the newest generation of comm circuits, we wanted to cut the cost of the transformer in half or better. To do this, we needed to use a more standard construction technique, and we ended up with a more standard plastic bobbin on a UU-core construction. The trick was how we distributed and connected the windings to achieve good rejection of interfering B-fields.

We did this (the main part of the patent) by splitting the primary and secondary coils into two halves each, and interleaving them on the core in a special pattern. The patent describes in minute detail how the placement and connection of the "split double bobbin" arrangement of the coils helps to cancel out the receive noise voltage from external B-fields that flow through the core in different directions, but I'll leave most of that extra reading to those who are interested (see the patent write-up). Here are a couple of figures that will help you to see how the split double-bobbin arrangement and connection scheme provide the noise voltage pickup cancellation.

Was a fun little project! (it was a small part of a much bigger project involving a new mixed-signal ASIC transceiver)

 

[Redbelly98]

Congrats! Even if you don't own the rights, at least your name is on it.

Looks like one of those simple-yet-brilliant ideas, if my understanding is correct.