A three-dimensional FEM method to predict current densities induced in conducting objects exposed to ELF magnetic fields.

Abstract

This thesis studies a numerical method to predict the current densities induced in conducting objects exposed to Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) magnetic fields. The Three Dimensional Finite Element Method (3-D FEM) was chosen to accomplish this task. The 3-D FEM numerical formulation is derived and presented as is the resulting algorithm written in FORTRAN code. The results are then presented and compared to other verified solutions to verify the validity of the formulation and the code. These results show that the 3-D FEM formulation works well for very simple objects. But, due to the fact that the developed algorithm requires much computer memory and that the governing coupled equations to solve produce matrices which are not always well conditioned, complex objects cannot yet be analyzed using this method.