Hello everyone, I am trying to simulate a custom permanent magnet generator, but I am stuck trying to define the rotor’s motion. My setup is: - **Stator:** Two Helmholtz coils (100 turns each) connected in series with a 10 Ohm external load resistor. - **Rotor:** Two permanent magnets (N45 and N52) with opposite magnetization along their common axis (the local z-axis). - **Motion:** This is the key challenge. The rotor does not rotate on its own axis. Instead, it orbits the stator. The center of the magnet assembly is on a 180mm arm, and the base of that arm rotates around a fixed point at (x=180, y=0) at 1000 RPM (16.67 Hz). **The Problem:** I have set up a **Time-Transient Magnetics** analysis. When I select the two magnet volumes and click the ‘+’ icon next to “Boundary Conditions”, the only options available are “Magnetic field normal” and “Magnetic flux tangential”. The expected “Rotating Motion” or similar boundary condition is not in the list. **My Question:** Is it possible to simulate this kind of orbital motion for permanent magnets in SimScale? If so, what is the correct workflow to define this movement? Thank you for your help.
No — SimScale’s Time-Transient Magnetics solver does not support moving or orbiting magnets. The “Rotating Motion” boundary condition only exists in the Structural and CFD solvers, not in Magnetics. To simulate your orbital motion, you must either:
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Run separate static simulations at different magnet positions and post-process the results (ΔΦ/Δt), or
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Use another tool (e.g. Ansys Maxwell or COMSOL) that supports moving meshes / sliding interfaces for electromagnetic motion.
Thank you for sharing