MagnetiCalc calculates the magnetic flux density, vector potential, energy, self-inductance and magnetic dipole moment of arbitrary coils. Inside a VisPy / OpenGL-accelerated PyQt5 GUI, the static magnetic flux density (B-field) or the magnetic vector potential (A-field) is displayed in interactive 3D, using multiple metrics for highlighting this field's properties.
Project description
MagnetiCalc
What does MagnetiCalc do?
MagnetiCalc calculates the static magnetic flux density, vector potential, energy, self-inductance and magnetic dipole moment of arbitrary coils. Inside a VisPy / OpenGL-accelerated PyQt5 GUI, the magnetic flux density (-field, in units of Tesla) or the magnetic vector potential (-field, in units of Tesla-meter) is displayed in interactive 3D, using multiple metrics for highlighting the field properties.
Experimental feature: To calculate the energy and self-inductance of permeable (i.e. ferromagnetic) materials, different core media can be modeled as regions of variable relative permeability; however, core saturation is currently not modeled, leading to excessive flux density values.
Who needs MagnetiCalc?
MagnetiCalc does its job for hobbyists, students, engineers and researchers of magnetic phenomena. I designed MagnetiCalc from scratch, because I didn't want to mess around with expensive and/or overly complex simulation software whenever I needed to solve a magnetostatic problem.
How does it work?
The -field calculation is implemented using the Biot-Savart law [1], employing multiprocessing techniques; MagnetiCalc uses just-in-time compilation (JIT) and, if available, GPU-acceleration (CUDA) to achieve high-performance calculations. Additionally, the use of easily constrainable "sampling volumes" allows for selective calculation over grids of arbitrary shape and arbitrary relative permeabilities (experimental).
The shape of any wire is modeled as a 3D piecewise linear curve. Arbitrary loops of wire are sliced into differential current elements (), each of which contributes to the total resulting field (, ) at some fixed 3D grid point (), summing over the positions of all current elements ():
At each grid point, the field magnitude (or field angle in some plane) is displayed using colored arrows and/or dots; field color and alpha transparency are individually mapped using one of the various available metrics.
The coil's energy [2] and self-inductance [3] are calculated by summing the squared -field over the entire sampling volume; ensure that the sampling volume encloses a large, non-singular portion of the field:
Additionally, the scalar magnetic dipole moment [4] is calculated by summing over all current elements:
References
[1]: Jackson, Klassische Elektrodynamik, 5. Auflage, S. 204, (5.4).
[2]: Kraus, Electromagnetics, 4th Edition, p. 269, 6-9-1.
[3]: Jackson, Klassische Elektrodynamik, 5. Auflage, S. 252, (5.157).
[4]: Jackson, Klassische Elektrodynamik, 5. Auflage, S. 216, (5.54).
Screenshot
(Screenshot taken from the latest GitHub release.)
Installation
Tested with Python 3.8 in Ubuntu 20.04.
If you have trouble installing MagnetiCalc, make sure to file an issue so I can help you get it up and running!
Prerequisites
The following dependency packages have to be installed first (Ubuntu 20.04):
sudo apt install python3-dev
sudo apt install libxcb-xinerama0 --reinstall
Option A: Automatic install via pip
Note: On some systems, it may be necessary to upgrade pip first:
python3 -m pip install pip --upgrade
Install (or upgrade) MagnetiCalc to the user site-packages directory and start it from there:
python3 -m pip install magneticalc --upgrade
python3 -m magneticalc
This will automatically install all dependency packages.
Note: From within a Jupyter Notebook, MagnetiCalc must be installed and run like this:
import sys
!{sys.executable} -m pip install magneticalc --upgrade
!{sys.executable} -m magneticalc
Option B: Manual download
First, manually install all dependency packages (upgrading each to the latest version):
python3 -m pip install numpy numba PyQt5 vispy qtawesome colorit si-prefix --upgrade
Clone the latest version of MagnetiCalc from GitHub and start it directly:
git clone https://github.com/shredEngineer/MagnetiCalc
cd MagnetiCalc
python3 -m magneticalc
For debugging, you may now also install (uninstall) the package in a virtual environment:
python3 -m pip install .
…
python3 -m pip uninstall magneticalc -y
Enabling CUDA Support
Tested in Ubuntu 20.04, using the NVIDIA CUDA 10.1 driver and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 GPU.
Please refer to the Numba Installation Guide which includes the steps necessary to get CUDA up and running.
License
Copyright © 2020, Paul Wilhelm, M. Sc. <anfrage@paulwilhelm.de>
ISC License
Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
Contribute
You are invited to contribute to MagnetiCalc in any way you like! :)
If this software has been helpful to you in some way or another, please let me and others know!
ToDo
- Add installation instructions for Windows, ensure consistent PyQt5 look and feel.
- Add support for modeling of core material saturation and hysteresis effects.
- Add support for selective display over a portion of the metric range, in order to get a kind of iso-contour display.
- Add support for multiple wires, study mutual induction.
Video
A very short demo of MagnetiCalc in action:
Links
If you want to comment on the project or see additional info, please visit my personal website: https://paulwilhelm.de/magneticalc/
Appendix: Metrics
Metric | Symbol | Description |
---|---|---|
Magnitude |
Magnitude in space | |
Magnitude X |
Magnitude in X-direction | |
Magnitude Y |
Magnitude in Y-direction | |
Magnitude Z |
Magnitude in Z-direction | |
Magnitude XY |
Magnitude in XY-plane | |
Magnitude XZ |
Magnitude in XZ-plane | |
Magnitude YZ |
Magnitude in YZ-plane | |
Log Magnitude |
Logarithmic Magnitude in space | |
Log Magnitude X |
Logarithmic Magnitude in X-direction | |
Log Magnitude Y |
Logarithmic Magnitude in Y-direction | |
Log Magnitude Z |
Logarithmic Magnitude in Z-direction | |
Log Magnitude XY |
Logarithmic Magnitude in XY-plane | |
Log Magnitude XZ |
Logarithmic Magnitude in XZ-plane | |
Log Magnitude YZ |
Logarithmic Magnitude in YZ-plane | |
Angle XY |
Field angle in XY-plane | |
Angle XZ |
Field angle in XZ-plane | |
Angle YZ |
Field angle in YZ-plane |
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