Electromagnetic field in superconductor samples using a partitioned E-H finite element scheme

Abstract The need for new numerical methods that can reduce the time computation for non-linear instantaneous field problems is increasing as for example applications for HTS materials become more and more important. This work proposes a novel numerical approach suitable for the simulation of non-linear materials with lower computational times in the simulation of instantaneous field problems in the presence of high temperature superconductors (HTS). The proposed method is based on a partitioned finite element method (FEM) using an E-H electromagnetic scheme formulation (FEM-EHS). The novelty of this method resides in the separation of the matrix formulation due to the discretization of Amperes and Faradaýs laws, leaving outside the matrix equations of the non-linear magnetic and electric material properties. Therefore, for a time-dependent simulation, the transformation matrices related to the Amperes and Faradaýs laws remain unchanged for the entire time domain, not dependent on the non-linear local Ohḿs law E(J) of the HTS model. Therefore, those matrices can be computed and inverted a priori leading to a fast computation. The method was validated by comparing results with a commercial FEA tool, for the simulation of an HTS bulk magnetization process. With the proposed method, results were obtained in less than 1/3 of the computational time of the commercial tool.