Describing material media
Introduction
The material media are modeled by material regions :
- mainly volume regions in 3D problems; surface regions and line regions are also possible in 3D
- mainly surface regions in 2D problems; line regions and point regions are also possible in 2D
For additional information about the role of regions, see chapter Physics: principles.
Material regions: overview
Volume, surface or line material regions allow the modeling of the material media (with materials). The physical properties of the medium are those of the corresponding material region.
| A region… | enables the modeling… | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magneto Static/ Transient Magnetic | air or vacuum |  | of the air or of the vacuum (permeability μ r =1) | (hard material or soft material) | |
| magnetic non conducting |  | of a medium: magnetic (permeability μ r ) non-conducting | |||
| coil conductor1 |  | of a medium: conducting with source1 non-magnetic (permeability μ r =1) → this medium represents a coil: 
 | |||
| laminated magnetic non conducting2 |  | of a laminated medium: magnetic (permeability μr) non conducting → this medium represents a stacked magnetic sheets2 : 
 | (soft material) | ||
| A region … | enables the modeling … | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Specific Transient Magnetic | solid conductor |  | of a medium: magnetic (permeability μr) conducting (resistivity ρ) | (can be: passive/active) | |
1 See Describing the source
Thin regions
Thin regions enable the modeling of regions of slight thickness.
- The following region types are available for a 2D application:- Air-gap (= Air or vacuum ) region
- Coil conductor region
- Solid conductor region (passive or active)
 
- The following region types are available for a 3D application:
- 
               - Air-gap (= Air or vacuum ) region
- Magnetic region
 
Filiform regions
Filiform regions enable the modeling of small cross-section regions.
- The following region type is available for a 2D application:
- 
               - Coil conductor region
 
- The following region type is available for a 3D application:
- 
               - Magnetic region