Computer-aided education for magnetostatics

We present in this paper a computer-aided education (CAE) package allowing to visualize the magnetostatic field in and around the magnetic circuit of a double-U shaped contactor. The modeling of this device is performed by solving in real time a nonlinear finite-element problem. The implementation of this method is optimized greatly in order to allow to animate field patterns in real time in reaction to any user interaction. An evaluation of the improvements brought by this technique to the learning capabilities of students is presented.