Variable Mapping Method With Nonmatching Meshes in 3-D Finite-Element Analysis of Coupled Electromagnetic–Structural Fields

In the magnetic-structural simulations which are done by weak coupling, electromagnetic force data obtained by the simulation of the magnetic fields are to be transferred to the structural fields between meshes. However, in the different fields due to the different requirements of discretization scheme, such as the shape and distribution density of meshes, different finite-element models are used to analyze. Therefore, the data cannot directly be transferred between these nonmatching meshes. In this paper, we proposed a nonmatching meshes mapping method to deal with this problem. This method was used to a 3-D coupled magnetic and structural finite-element analysis of C-shaped armature in the railgun. Under the four different conditions of discretization scheme, the coupled simulations of the magnetic and structural fields were done by this method. The results were compared with reference values obtained by the same meshes mapping situation. The relative errors of the four cases are all less than 5%. Therefore, it proves the correctness and accuracy of this method.