Thermal Analysis of an Eddy-Current Heated Piece by means of the FEM-DBCI Method

Purpose - This paper aims to propose a hybrid method, called finite element method-Dirichlet boundary condition iteration (FEM-DBCI), for the computation of time-harmonic eddy current problems inside a conductor heated by coils in 3D open-boundary geometry.Design/methodology/approach - The method assumes the electrical field as unknown on a mesh of tetrahedral edge elements. The heating power density inside the conductor is then computed and a steady-state thermal analysis is performed on the same mesh of nodal tetrahedra to calculate the temperature distribution inside the heated piece, taking radiation and convection into account. A numerical example is also provided.Findings - The method couples a differential equation for the interior problem in terms of the electric fields with an integral equation for the exterior one. The global algebraic system is efficiently solved in an iterative way.Originality/value - The paper illustrates the computation of time-harmonic eddy current problems inside a conductor heated by coils.