Taking Advantages of Translatory Symmetric Parts in Electromagnetic Models

In model parts which are geometrically symmetric but in which an unsymmetric field distribution is expected, a hybrid method based on a tensor-product grid of finite elements and orthogonal polynomials is applied. The finite elements ensure a flexible approximation of all geometrical details whereas the orthogonal polynomials applied along the direction of symmetry offer a superlinear convergence of the discretisation error. The hybrid method is coupled to a standard finite-element discretisation of the remaining model parts by the Lagrange-multiplier technique. The example indicates a substantial savings of computational resources.