Magnetic Force and Field for Electromechanical Engineering

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Actuators, solenoids, and other electromechanical equipment are everywhere.  According to the market research firm, MarketsandMarkets, the actuators market alone is projected to reach USD 47 Billion by 2021.  The electrical actuators segment market is projected to hold the highest share in terms of value.  The same firm also projects that solenoid valve and loudspeaker markets to reach USD 4.41 Billion and USD 16.49 Billion, respectively,  by 2022.   Other electromechanical equipment and devices such as relays, contactors, electromagnets,  magnetic brakes, and magnetic bearings, market are also burgeoning. 
Despite the projected growth, this industry faces major challenges, including:

  • The miniaturization while maintaining  high power density,
  • The expected increase in lifetime and reliability. 
  • Demand on high efficiency over a wide force and torque ranges.
  • Minimizing cost in a cutthroat industry.
  • Making the products environmentally friendly.

To meet the above challenges, this industry has been relying more and more on new technologies and simulation tools. 

The Force is the Bottleneck

In actuators, solenoids, and all other electromechanical devices and equipment, the ultimate goal is to produce a sufficient force or torque at a minimum cost while avoiding any overheating, deformation, and stiction.  Depending on the nature of actuation, the force or torque could be an electrostatic force, magnetic force, or electromagnetic force.  EMS, with its seamless integration in Solidworks and Autodesk Inventor, is the ultimate workhorse to accurately compute all of the above force types for any electromechanical device in a record time,  whether the device is powered by a voltage source, current source, or a permanent magnet. EMS is also seamlessly integrated in Solidworks Motion and thus empowers you to study motion with all six DOF.  Being a finite element package, it first computes the electric or magnetic field, and then it uses either the Lorentz force or virtual work method to compute the force and torque.  The following examples illustrate the power of EMS to simulate electromechanical devices in general with an emphasis on force and torque computation.