FEA of electromagnetics: a geometrical approach for problems with plane symmetry

A geometrical approach for finite-element analysis of electromagnetic phenomena exhibiting plane symmetry is developed. The proposed method is developed for first-order triangular meshes. Electromagnetic fields inside any given triangular element are calculated as a linear combination of vectors associated with the sides of the element. The element stiffness matrix can be obtained from another matrix whose coefficients are the dot products of vectors associated with the sides of the triangle. This matrix is derived by applying the integral form of Maxwell´s equations to contours suitably chosen in the finite-element mesh. The method is suitable for teaching finite-element analysis in electromagnetics at undergraduate level