Simulation of coupled electromagnetic and heat dissipation problems

A description is given of an integrated simulation environment for the solution of problems in two dimensions, in particular for induction heating, dielectric heating, and hysteresis heating. The equations are coupled because most of the material properties are temperature-dependent in a non-linear way. Heating by induction and hysteresis can be modelled separately or as combined processes. All heating problems under consideration may involve thermal convection and radiation at boundaries. Additional temperature dependent heat sources (e.g. resistor heating), and instantaneous effects of movement in the plane on the temperature transfer can be included. General symmetry assumptions can be used as well as special current conservation properties for eddy currents. In this way proximity effects can be studied. Effects around Curie temperature transitions can be analyzed. The software package has been constructed with the high level language PDL (Package Designer Language), using the general `Mammy´ design environment. This concept also involves an easy interface to existing pre- and postprocessing packages and to libraries of numerical subroutines