Create coupled designs between Maxwell and ephysics

Transcription

1 Create coupled designs between Maxwell and ephysics Creating datalink coupling with Maxwell is easy. In general this is a two step process when the link involves one Maxwell solver and one ephysics solver. The most usual situation is to create a link in ephysics after the Maxwell project has been created and solved. In this situation: 1) Create the ephysics design: a. Select all objects in the Maxwell design to be coupled to ephysics (for example you could make all objects visible and select Ctrl-A followed by Ctrl-C to copy the respective objects to the clipboard; b. Start ephysics, select the desired type of solution for the design and from the 3D Modeler Menu select the Import From Clipboard command (Do not use the Paste command for datalink purposes); 2) Finalize the ephysics design by adding appropriate boundary conditions, sources other than those of electromagnetic nature that are to come from Maxwell, add a setup. Then: a. from the Solver tab select the External Load check box b. the Setup Link dialog will pop up automatically c. under the General tab browse to the location of the Maxwell project and select the project design and solution to be datalinked to ephysics d. Click OK to validate and close open dialogs. Notes: - Make sure to save the Maxwell project before attempting to couple it with other designs; - Check the geometry units and make sure the settings are the same in coupled designs; - In the process of copying the objects in the source design to the clipboard, the selection mode must be set to Object ; - Using the Import From Clipboard command brings into the ephysics design (also called here target design ) not only the geometry but also the assignment of material properties; - If the material used in the Maxwell design (also called here source design ) was created in Maxwell, remember to edit the thermal properties before you attempt the coupled analysis; in this case the material created in the Maxwell design may contain only electromagnetic properties, thermal properties are needed as well; - When selecting the objects in the Maxwell design make sure that 2D (sheet) objects are selected as well; while 2D objects do not have material properties, they are used in the meshing process and for correct geometry mapping of the coupled designs, they re needed in both coupled models; - Arbitrary number of non-model objects may exist in both source and target designs coupled with datalink, these are not considered during the check of the consistency of geometries in coupled designs; apart from the non-model objects all other 2D & 3D geometry objects must coincide in the coupled designs;

2 - The datalink feature uses data caching technology; be sure to flush the coupling data whenever needed by using the Clear Linked Data command (right click in the respective Analysis/Setup in the target design). - If UDPs were used to create the geometry model in Maxwell, make sure that the same UPDs are present in syslib folder in the ephysics installation and using the same path (relative to syslib) as in the Maxwell installation. Remark Usually the source design is set up first and then the target design is created as explained above. However it is possible to create the datalink between Maxwell and ephysics from the target towards the source. Thus if the ephysics design is created first when user attempts to create a link, if the source project doesn t exist, a new one will be automatically created. To achieve this proceed as follows: - Create and finalize the ephysics design; - Right click the Setup in the project manager window and select Properties command; - From the Solver tab check the External load check box; - Click the Setup Link button; - Under the General tab enter the full path where the Maxwell project will be created; include a Design name and leave the Solution (for now) to Default; - Click Ok to validate and start the process of creating the link. Do not forget to specify the extension for the project so that ephysics knows to create a Maxwell or HFSS project depending on the extension of the respective file. Proceeding as above the source design is created automatically and includes the material property assignment. Verify the material properties in the source design and make sure that all electromagnetic properties are set as needed, edit properties if need be. Once the source design is finalized it is recommended that you re-visit the datalink in the ephysics design and specify the desired data in the Solution field of the setup link dialog (for example for Maxwell it should be Setup1: LastAdaptive). Using multiple design couplings Multiple design couplings may be used in the process of creating complex applications. For example it is common to extend a thermal analysis with a stress analysis which takes the temperature distribution as a source and uses it in the stress target design to compute the resulting deformation and stress. There is no limit to the number of designs that can be coupled in a daisy chain fashion to create the needed application. For example in the figure below it is shown the daisy chain of datalinks between 4 solvers: Maxwell magnetostatic, HFSS, thermal static and stress static.

3 The example above is a ferrite circulator. The magnetic bias created by the magnetic field produced in the Maxwell design is used in the HFSS design and impacts the power loss generated. The power loss from HFSS model is mapped onto the thermal model and subsequently the temperature distribution is used as source in the linked stress design. Note that while the geometry between the HFSS and ephysics designs must be identical, the geometry between HFSS and Maxwell designs is allowed to be different; the ferrite block however in both Maxwell and HFSS is geometrically the same including orientation. Multiple links in designs As a rule there is one datalink per solution setup. However there may be situations where multiple links are allowed to be used in the same solution setup. For example in a thermal transient design, apart from selecting the power loss distribution calculated in the source design, there are two additional links that can be created and used in the solution process: a mesh link to indicate the source of mesh to be used (from a design with identical geometry) and a link to a thermal static design which allows the usage of an existing static solution as (distributed) initial condition (temperature distribution in the model at Time = 0).

4 Using variables in coupled designs Design or project variables can be used in coupled projects. If a variable has been defined in the source design, it can be controlled in target design. For example it can be used to set up a parametric sweep. To control in the target design a variable defined in the source design proceed as follows. Right click the setup used for the datalink coupling, then: a. Select the Properties command b. From the Solver tab check the External Load check box c. Click the Setup Link button d. Select the Parameters tab; you ll get access to variables defined in the linked design/project e. Edit the data field in the Value column and enter the desired name for the parameter; for example you could use the same name as the one already used in the source design and listed in the Parameter column After this variable mapping, the respective parameter can be used in the target design. Note: - You can use any name in the data field in the Value column above; however to avoid confusion later on you may want to continue to use the original name of the respective variable from the source design. - In daisy chain linked designs variables can be communicated between any two adjacent designs and used wherever needed along the chained linked designs;

5