Modeling Magnetic Material Using Vector Potential-Based Elements in ANSYS and Comparing with Edge-Based Elements

More and more, soft or hard magnetic materials have been used in the magnetic confinement fusion machine, like reduced-activation ferritic-martensitic steel, which may be used in the first wall and breeding blanket structural material of ITER. Twisted coils in the stellarator may be substituted by permanent magnets. ANSYS electromagnetic simulation has two methods: nodal-based formulation or edge-based formulation. Nodal-based formulation has been widely used in past years. This paper will present a modification to the nodal-based element SOLID97 in ANSYS to form the correct normal boundary condition to model ferromagnetic materials and compare the results, e.g., field, eddy current density, and Lorentz force, to edge-based methods using SOLID236.