Local Force Calculation in 3D Fem with Edge Elements*

A nodal force method has been proposed to calculate the local magnetic force in conductors and magnetic materials using the three-dimensional finite element method (FEM). It is formulated by volume integrations of the Maxwell's magnetic stress tensor with the virtual nodal displacement. The method can be easily implemented into the FEM programs. Numerical test calculations show that the calculated results agree well with analytic solutions and an experiment.