Numerical analysis of a FEM based on a time-primitive of the electric field for solving a nonlinear transient eddy current problem.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze from a mathematical and a numerical point of view a formulation of a transient eddy current problem in terms of a time-primitive of the electric field in a bounded domain with ferromagnetic conductors. To this aim, we introduce a Lagrange multiplier to impose the free-divergence condition in the isolated domain. Thus, we obtain a nonlinear degenerate parabolic problem in mixed form and prove its well-posedness. Then, we propose a fully-discrete scheme by using an implicit Euler scheme for time-discretization and a finite element method based on edge and nodal elements for the spatial discretization. We prove quasi-optimal error estimates for the approximation and include some numerical examples to confirm the obtained theoretical results.