Non-Meshed Coil

Analysis > Magnetostatic Integral Loads > Non-Meshed Coil

What is a Non-Meshed Coil

A Non-Meshed Coil is a 3D graphical entity of circular, rectangular or more complex shape, which superposes to the mesh and is independent from it.

The computation of the magnetic field created by the distribution of current is then carried out using the Biot and Savart formula in an analytic or semi-analytic way.

A Non-Meshed Coil is not a part of the geometry, i.e. it is not formed of points, lines, faces and volumes. Therefore, it will not be taken into account by the geometric construction and the mesh generator. You can describe it before or after generating the mesh.

The Non-Meshed Coil is a load and constraint available on all 3D magnetic solutions.

Interest and limitation of Non-Meshed Coils

The main interest of using Non-Meshed Coils is to improve the performance of meshing and solving processes.

The main limitation of using Non-Meshed Coils is that the simulation is less precise than using meshed coil (no proximity effect, no skin effect). Also, it is not possible to post process local quantities on the Non-Meshed Coils.

Types of Non-Meshed Coils

The different types of Non-Meshed Coils available through the submenu of the Non-Meshed Coil... button are:

Non-Meshed Coil geometrical definition

To understand the description of the coils, it is necessary to define the concepts of coil path and section (see figure below).

The coil path line is the line that defines the shape of the coil. It is also called the neutral axis.

The section is the surface of the coil perpendicular to the coil path line.

The coil path line passes by the center of gravity of the section.

How to create and modify a coordinate system

The coordinate system creation is needed to define the direction and the position of some types of Non-Meshed Coils: Rectangular.

In the workflow ribbon bar, the following buttons allow to Create and Transform coordinate systems:

To create rectangular Non-Meshed Coils, a coordinate system is required.

By default, Global coordinate system is taken.

If the Global coordinate system is not suitable, a new local coordinate system must be created by using first Create command.

This command allows to create a rectangular or cylindrical coordinate system (spherical is not managed yet for Non-Meshed Coils) by picking meshed geometrical entities (nodes, meshed edge, meshed face,…).

Here is the Create coordinate system dialog box:

For more details, please refer to the documentation on coordinate systems Create

Once the coordinate system creation done, it is possible to Transform the created coordinate system either by translation or rotation.

The Transform command allows either to modify a coordinate system or to duplicate it by translation or rotation.

Here is the Transform coordinate system dialog box:

For more details, please refer to the documentation on coordinate systems Transform.

Predefined shape Non-Meshed Coils dialog box for MSIM solutions

Predefined shape Non-Meshed Coils are defined by two coil path shapes: circular or rectangular and two section shapes: disc or rectangular.

Here are two dialog boxes to get an overview of all the possible inputs:

Each Non-Meshed Coil is defined by geometrical and physical inputs.

Once the coil orientation and position is defined, the coil path line inputs are entered:

• For circular shape coil: Enter the Coil radius value defined by the distance between the coil center point and the coil path line.
• For rectangular shape coil:
  • Enter the coil Height and Width values defined by the distance between two outermost points of the coil path line, on both directions. The height corresponds to coordinate system Y axis direction, the width to X axis direction.
  • Enter the Coil fillet radius value to create a fillet on each coil corner.

Circular coil (rectangular section)	Rectangular coil (disc section)

After the coil path line definition, the coil section is defined:

• Disk section is defined by Coil section radius value
• Rectangular section is defined by Coil section height and Coil section width . The height corresponds to coil axis direction and the width to the other direction.

Circular section	Rectangular section

Once the geometrical definition done, the physical inputs are entered:

When clicking on Ok, the Non-Meshed Coil load and constraint entity is created in the solution Loads and Constraints data tree.

Motion

In a device, bodies can move but also Non-Meshed Coils can move.

User can define the motion for both bodies and Non-Meshed Coils in the Motion load and constraint:

For more details on Motion load and constraint, please read Motion.

How to duplicate a Non-Meshed Coil

The Non-Meshed Coil duplication can be really helpful to earn coil definition time.

The duplication is available on the right-click on a Non-Meshed Coil entity through Duplicate button:

When clicking on Duplicate, a new Non-Meshed Coil entity is created with a name corresponding to the initial Non-Meshed Coil name with "_IDNumber" ("_1" or "_2" or etc.).

The common workflow with the duplication is to:

Limitations

Here are the current limitations about Non-Meshed Coils: