1182 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 44, NO.

6, JUNE 2008

Magnetic Field Analysis Using Hybrid Mesh of Linear

Hexahedral and Tetrahedral Edge Elements
Akihisa Kameari
Science Solutions International Laboratory, Inc., Tokyo 153-0065, Japan

Linear hexahedral and tetrahedral elements are joined without linking elements of pyramidal shape. Two triangular faces are con-
strained by a quadrilateral face in irregular meshes with hanging edges. Edge shape functions are not conforming on the interfaces.
Test computations showed good accuracies in the results by the method comparing with results using meshes made of linear hexahedral,
tetrahedral and quadratic-nodal-linear-edge elements. The hybrid mesh makes mesh generations flexible and overcomes the degrada-
tion of results using the linear tetrahedral edge elements with high aspect ratio for conductive regions in eddy current analyses. The
quadratic-nodal-linear-edge elements were also studied and remedy the degradation of linear tetrahedral elements.
Index Terms—Eddy current analysis, edge elements, finite-element method (FEM), hybrid mesh.

I. INTRODUCTION
N MAGNETIC field analyses by the finite-element method
I (FEM), the mesh generation is one of the most important
problems, especially in eddy current analyses with thin skin
depth. In order to obtain accurate eddy currents and their heat
losses, surfaces of conductors should be divided into several
layers of thin elements to reduce degrees of freedom to a rea-
sonable number. If we generated a mesh of tetrahedral elements Fig. 1. Joining of a hexahedral and tetrahedral elements.
with moderate aspect ratios, extraordinary many elements were
generated in the layers. And also, it is well known that use of thin
linear tetrahedral edge elements degrades the accuracy of the
results. Linear hexahedral elements are preferred in the layers.
Conductive regions can be relatively easier to be divided into
structured hexahedral meshes. On the other hand, air regions
surrounding conductors with complicated shapes are difficult
to be divided into hexahedral meshes and easier to be meshed
by tetrahedral elements using the Delaunay automatic triangu-
lation. In the paper, the linear tetrahedral edge element means
the Nedelec’s first-order element in [1] and the linear hexahe-
dral element was described in [2]. Fig. 2. Variable assignment on edges at the interface and constrain of the vari-
ables. (a) Local coordinate and (b) global coordinate.
Conformal constraints in hybrid meshes were shown using
higher order edge elements [3]. But in this study, it was pre-
ferred simply to extend our program using linear elements. One
method to join the linear hexahedral and tetrahedral meshes is II. METHOD OF JOINING HEXAHEDRAL
to insert linking elements of pyramidal shape [4]. However, the AND TETRAHEDRAL ELEMENTS
pyramidal elements cannot be treated in the most of general It is assumed that a mesh is composed of linear hexahedral
mesh processors and are not easy to be handled. In this paper, a and tetrahedral edge elements. In the hybrid mesh, it is restricted
novel method is presented that linear hexahedral and tetrahedral so that there is no floating node and only floating edges are in-
elements are directly joined without linking elements. The test cluded. Each quadrilateral face of hexahedral elements is con-
computation showed good results by the method. tacting to two triangle faces of tetrahedral elements as shown in
To remedy the degradation of thin linear tetrahedral elements Fig. 1.
in eddy current analyses, quadratic-nodal-linear-edge elements In the or - formulation, unknown variables on floating
[5] are effective and easily implemented. The analyses using the edges are constrained so that magnetic fluxes through the two
elements are also compared with the analyses using the hybrid triangles contacting a quadrilateral face are equal. In the case of
meshes. Fig. 2, it is given by

(1)

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2007.916500 Therefore, the variable of the floating edge is given as
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. (2)
0018-9464/$25.00 © 2008 IEEE

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KAMEARI: MAGNETIC FIELD ANALYSIS USING HYBRID MESH OF LINEAR HEXAHEDRAL AND TETRAHEDRAL EDGE ELEMENTS
Fig. 3. Quadratic-nodal-linear-tetrahedral edge element.
Tangential components of edge shape functions are not con-
tinuous and the elements are not conformal on the interfaces.
The normal continuity of magnetic flux density is conserved
only when the quadrilateral face is parallelepiped. When the
quadrilateral face is not parallelepiped as shown as in Fig. 2, the
diagonal of the quadrilateral face is mapped into a curved line
in the global coordinate and does not coincides with the edge
of the triangles. The total flux through two triangles is equated
to the flux through the quadrilateral face. The discontinuity of
magnetic vector potential might prohibit floating edges in con-
ductor regions. In the paper, the interface was located on con-
ductor surfaces or in air regions.
III. QUADRATIC-NODAL-LINEAR-EDGE ELEMENT
In remedying the degradation of linear tetrahedral edge ele-
ments in eddy current analysis, the quadratic-nodal-linear-edge
element shown in Fig. 3 is effective. The element has six degrees
of freedom on edges and ten degrees on nodes. Usual quadratic
nodal functions are added on the linear edge elements as electric
scalar potential in the - formulation. The functional space
of shape functions is just the same as the element proposed by
Hano [6], which has two degrees of freedom on each edge. How-
ever, the proposed elements is very easy to be implemented only
by addition of a node on each edge in usual linear elements. The
analysis using the elements in conductive regions showed that
the degradation of linear elements is fairly remedied even when
the elements are very thin or flat.
IV. NUMERICAL TESTS
A. Cubic Conductor
Heat losses of eddy current were analyzed for a conductive
cube with 1 m sides and S/m conductivity under 1-T
uniform magnetic field with 10 Hz. The skin depth of eddy cur-
rent is 2.3 cm and fairly thin elements are needed to obtain ac-
curate heat loss. The 1/8 region was analyzed by the symmetry.
The results were compared between the following meshes.
Hexa mesh: linear hexahedral elements in all regions.
Tetra mesh: linear tetrahedral elements in all regions.
Quad-Tetra mesh: quadratic-nodal-linear-edge elements in
conductive regions and linear tetrahedral elements in air
regions.
Hybrid mesh: Linear hexahedral elements in conductive
regions and linear tetrahedral elements in air regions with
the nonconformal constraints.
Fig. 4 shows Hybrid mesh with ten divisions in the conductor
in each directions. The divisions were concentrated near the
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1183
Fig. 4. Hybrid mesh for analysis of cubic conductor (10 division).
Fig. 5. Relative errors versus mesh width in results of cubic conductor.
conductor surfaces. The maximum aspect ratio (longest edge
length/shortest edge length) of the elements is fixed to 20 in the
meshes. Every computation was performed using the magnetic
vector potential and the electric scalar potential in con-
ductor regions and in air regions. Steady states were solved
using the complex ICCG method.
The dependencies of relative errors on mesh width are shown
in Fig. 5. The minimum mesh width in the mesh is normalized
by the skin depth . The expected solution was calculated by an
extrapolation of the results by Hexa mesh. Except Tetra mesh,
relative errors are reduced proportionally to the square of mesh
width. The results by Tetra mesh show large errors even though
a tendency of convergence to the expected solution is observed
in fine meshes. The turn in the curve of Tetra mesh is caused
by crossing the expected solution once as the mesh width be-
comes smaller. Fig. 6 shows eddy current distributions in Hexa,
Tetra and Quad-Tetra meshes. In Tetra mesh, the current dis-
tribution is irregular especially in badly shaped elements. The
distribution is remedied by the quadratic-nodal-linear-edge ele-
ments. No degradation of convergence to expected solution was
not observed in Hybrid mesh.
Solving times and required memories in computations are
shown versus attained errors in Fig. 7. The solving time is CPU
time for the incomplete LDL decomposition and ICCG itera-
tions. Hexa mesh is superior to the others, and the computation
time is one order lower and also required memory is less than
a half of the others to obtain the same accuracy. Hybrid mesh
required smaller memory than Quad-Tetra mesh although the
solving times are nearly the same.
1184
Fig. 6. Eddy current distribution in the uppermost mesh layer. (a) Hexa mesh.
(b) Tetra mesh. (c) Quad-Tetra mesh.
Fig. 7. Solving time and required memory versus attained relative errors in
computations of the conductive cube (Pentium IV, 2.52-GHz, 2-GB RAM).
(a) Solving time and (b) required memory.
B. Hollow Sphere Model
A hollow sphere model, i.e., the TEAM Workshop problem 6
[7], was solved. A uniform magnetic field is applied on a hollow
sphere, whose inner radius, outer radius and conductivity are
50 mm, 55 mm, and S/m, respectively. The amplitude
and frequency of the magnetic field are 1 T and 50 Hz. The
analytic average Joule heating over the sphere is 10 062 W.
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 44, NO. 6, JUNE 2008
Fig. 8. Hybrid mesh division of the hollow sphere model. (a) Hexahedral mesh
in conductor region. (b) Tetrahedral mesh in air region.
TABLE I
COMPARISON BETWEEN CALCULATIONS USING DIFFERENT MESHES
In Hybrid mesh, the conductor was divided into hexahedral
elements and inner and outer air regions were divided into tetra-
hedral elements as shown in Fig. 8. Computational results are
shown in Table I. The error in the result using only tetrahedral
elements is relatively large. The aspect ratios of elements in the
conductive region are about 8. Such large error was observed
even with the moderate aspect ratios using only linear tetrahe-
dral elements. Using Hybrid mesh, the computation time was
less than using Tetra and Quad-Tetra meshes and the accuracy
was very good and better than by Hexa mesh. The better accu-
racy could be occasional, or deformed hexahedral edge elements
might causes the error because the shape functions cannot rep-
resent the uniform field in the inner air completely.
C. Model of Induction Heating Device
In the previous models, the computations by Hexa meshes are
superior to the others and Hexa meshes can be easily generated
in the geometries. So, Hybrid mesh is not needed in the models.
In a model shown in this section, the mesh generation is not
easy using only hexahedral elements and Hybrid mesh is very
effective.
The method was applied to the model of an induction heating
device shown in Fig. 9. A steady voltage is applied to the ends of
KAMEARI: MAGNETIC FIELD ANALYSIS USING HYBRID MESH OF LINEAR HEXAHEDRAL AND TETRAHEDRAL EDGE ELEMENTS
Fig. 9. Model of induction heating device and hexahedral mesh in the
conductors.
Fig. 10. Surface triangular mesh surrounding the outer air region.
the hollow circular conductor and induces current in the center
cylinder. The skin depth is relatively small compared to the
thickness of the hollow conductor and the center cylinder.
The hybrid mesh was generated as follows. At first, the
hollow conductor, center cylinder and their inner air regions
were divided into hexahedral elements by sweeping 2-D meshes
at the cross sections along the centerlines as shown in Fig. 9.
Next, quadrilateral surface meshes on the conductors were
extracted from the hexahedral mesh and divided into triangular
meshes. Together with a triangular mesh on outer boundary,
the outer air region was surrounded by a triangular mesh as
shown in Fig. 10. Finally, the outer air region is meshed by the
Delauney triangulation into a tetrahedral mesh.
The computation was successfully performed. Fig. 11 shows
the resultant distribution of the Joule heating in the conductors.
The skin effect was reasonably observed in the result.
V. CONCLUSION
A method using hybrid meshes is proposed. In the meshes,
hexahedral elements and tetrahedral elements are joined without
inserting linking elements of pyramidal shape. The shape func-
tions are constrained without conformity at interfaces. However,
magnetic fluxes through interfaces are conserved and it seems
that the nonconformity is little. The convergence to a solution is
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1185
Fig. 11. Calculated distribution of Joule heating in the induction heating
device.
proportional to the square of mesh width and the same as using
only linear hexahedral or quadratic-nodal-linear-edge elements.
The method increases flexibility of mesh generation, especially
when surface regions on conductors with complicated shape
should be meshed into fine layers in eddy current analyses.
In the paper, only applications in linear steady states are
shown, but this method is applicable to nonlinear static and
transient analyses. Interfaces between hexahedral and tetrahe-
dral are limited in air regions or on surfaces between conductors
and the air in this study. Interfaces in conductive region are
doubtful and a problem in future, where the continuity of
electric field is important.
The quadratic-nodal-linear-edge elements are also studied.
The elements remedy the degradation of linear tetrahedral el-
ements with high aspect ratio in eddy current analyses. Using
the elements, tetrahedral elements with high aspect ratio greater
than 20 showed no degradation in eddy current analyses.
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Manuscript received June 24, 2007. Corresponding author: A. Kameari
(e-mail: kamearia@ssil.co.jp).