An MPP Version of the Electromagnetism Module in LS-DYNA for 3D Coupled Mechanical-Thermal-Electromagnetic Simulations

A new electromagnetism module is being developed in LS-DYNA for coupled mechanical/thermal/electromagnetic simulations. One of the main applications of this module is Electromagnetic Metal Forming (EMF). The electromagnetic fields are solved using a Finite Element Method (FEM) for the conductors coupled with a Boundary Element Method (BEM) for the surrounding air/insulators. Both methods use elements based on discrete differential forms for improved accuracy . Recently, a Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) version of the EM module was developed allowing sharing the CPU and memory between different processors and thus faster computations on larger problems. The implementation of the FEM and BEM in MPP will be presented. The EM module will then be illustrated on an actual EMF case. Experimental and numerical results will be compared and the speed-up of the MPP version will be studied. Finally, a new contact capability for the electromagnetic fields will be presented and illustrated on a rail gun simulation.