Magnetic Insulation

Magnetic Insulation

The node is the default boundary condition for the Magnetic Fields interface and adds a boundary condition that sets the tangential components of the magnetic potential to zero at the boundary n × A = 0.

Magnetic insulation is a special case of the magnetic potential boundary condition that sets the tangential component of the magnetic potential to zero.

This node is used for the modeling of a lossless metallic surface, for example, a ground plane or as a symmetry type boundary condition. The node imposes symmetry for magnetic fields and “magnetic currents.” In the transient and time harmonic formulations, it also imposes antisymmetry for electric fields and electric currents. The node supports induced electric surface currents and thus any prescribed or induced electric currents (volume, surface, or edge currents) flowing into a perfect electric conductor boundary are automatically balanced by induced surface currents.

The Magnetic Insulation node can also be applied on interior boundaries. The boundary will then support two surface current densities on the two sides, denoted bu Jsu (upside) and Jsd (downside).

Figure 10-1: The magnetic insulation boundary condition is used on exterior and interior boundaries representing the surface of a lossless metallic conductor or (on exterior boundaries) a symmetry cut. The shaded (metallic) region is not part of the model but still carries effective mirror images of the sources. Note also that any current flowing into the boundary is perfectly balanced by induced surface currents. The tangential vector potential (and electric field) vanishes at the boundary.

Constraint Settings

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	Weak constraints perform poorly when applied on vector elements. They should be used when the magnetic vector potential is discretized with Lagrange elements, for example, when solving for out-of-plane component in a two-dimensional component.