Electromagnetic force calculation within finite volume framework

In this research, the comparison of force calculation methods in magnetostatic simulations within a cell-centered finite volume framework is presented. Various procedures for postprocessing of the magnetic vector potential field are laid out to obtain the surface and volume integrals of Maxwell's stress tensor and the Lorentz force density. Two different magnetostatic problems with multiple operating points were modeled with the AVL FIRETM M. The force results have been verified by comparing them to the Ansys Maxwell and were validated on a benchmark case from a Testing Electromagnetic Analysis Methods (TEAM) workshop. The interpolation of the magnetic flux density on a multi-material interface is presented, and it is used in conjunction with the surface integral of Maxwell's stress tensor for an efficient global force computation. For all observed cases, the calculated results correspond well to the results found in the literature. It was found that the accuracy of the volume integral of Maxwell's stress tensor is dependent on the mesh quality and gradient calculation scheme. Employing the semi-structured mesh with Gauss's gradient scheme results in force discrepancies of less than 3% between the surface and volume integral of Maxwell's stress tensor. The convergence of the iterative solver is observed to be slower in the case of the materials with permeability jump, where discontinuities between the tangential component of the magnetic flux density and the normal component of the magnetic field intensity occur.