Automatic cuts for magnetic scalar potential formulations

The approach of magnetic scalar potential T/sub 0//spl phi/-/spl phi/ is widely popular for solving magnetic problems coupled with electric circuits. However, cuts are required to preserve the Ampere's law for the case of ferromagnetic circuits with holes surrounded by coils. The manual definition of cuts might not be evident even for experimented finite-element (FE) users. This paper presents a new automatic cuts generation algorithm. First, we present a tool that allows determining if a ferromagnetic region has holes or not. If holes are found, the region is then inflated to get automatically needed cuts. The presented algorithm is also applicable to generate electric cuts in massive conductors.