Simplified Approach for 3-D Nonlinear Induction Heating Problems

The paper presents a two-stage approach to solve a class of nonlinear 3-D eddy current problems with high saturation, typical of induction heating processes. The proposed method separates the problem of heavy nonlinearity from the complexity of the geometry, by resorting to a 1-D fast nonlinear solver which is coupled with a linear 3-D solver. Under certain hypotheses on the geometry, the approach is shown to be effective and accurate. Comparison with a commercial 3-D nonlinear code are provided.