3-D Transient Magneto-Thermal Field Analysis Using Adaptive Degrees-of-Freedom Finite-Element Method

In this article, an adaptive degrees-of-freedom (DoFs) finite-element method (FEM) is proposed for the 3-D transient magneto-thermal field analysis. The indirect coupling between these two fields is implemented based on one set of mesh, and the DoFs of each field are adapted separately according to the different requirements of discretization. With the proposed method, the data transfer between fields is readily accomplished, and optimal FE spaces can be produced for both fields without using a second mesh. In this adaptive method, these DoFs with sufficiently small estimated errors are constrained by the surrounding active DoFs and removed from the FE space using the slave-master technique. This DoF elimination process has the same effect as mesh coarsening, while the subsequent operations after mesh coarsening and the interpolation errors from fine mesh to coarse mesh are avoided. The effectiveness of the proposed method is showcased through the comparison of conventional methods.