Solving time-dependent two-dimensional eddy current problems (Q922668)

The authors propose some results on transient eddy current calculations which are an important subject in classical electrodynamics. The situation is typical - a two-dimensional transverse magnetic field is incident on an infinitely long conductor. The resulting problem is an initial-boundary-value interface problem with the boundary of the conductor being the interface. In order to simulate the solution in the time domain a potential function is defined. The boundary integral equation method and the finite element method seem to be rather costly. The authors develop finite-difference time-domain techniques for marching the potential function explicitly in time. They use low-frequency radiating boundary conditions and time- stepping of the potentials rather than the vector-field components. Thus the required computer storage is less and calculation can be simplified. Some numerical results are compared with the approximate analytic solutions.