ADAPTIVE FINITE ELEMENT MESH REFINEMENT AND 'A POSTERIORI' ERROR ESTIMATION PROCEDURES FOR ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD COMPUTATION

摘要

Adaptive Finite Element (FE) mesh refinement combined with a robust and functionally reliable error estimate provides nearly optimal solution accuracy. The efficiency of adaptivity depends on the effectiveness of the mesh refinement algorithm and also on the availability of a reliable and computationally inexpensive error estimation strategy. An adaptive mesh refinement algorithm utilizing a hierarchical minimal tree based data structure for 2D and 3D problems is discussed in this paper. Two different 'a posteriori' error estimation schemes, one based on the local element by element method and the other using the gradient of field approach are also presented. The usefulness of the mesh refinement algorithm and the error estimation strategies are demonstrated by adaptively solving a set of 2D and 3D linear boundary value problems. The performance of the error estimates is also verified for adaptive modeling of a nonlinear problem involving the design of a permanent magnet synchronous machine. [Vol. 12, No. 1 (1997), Special Issue on International Computational Electromagnetics, pp 61-68