A SHELL ELEMENT FOR COMPUTING 3D EDDY CURRENTS - APPLICATION TO TRANSFORMERS

A skin depth-independent shell element to model thin conducting sheets is described in a finite element context. This element takes into acc ount the field variation through depth due to skin effect. The finite element formulation is first described, then boundary conditions at th e edge of conducting shells and the possibility of describing non cond ucting line gaps and holes are discussed. Finally, a computation of an earthing transformer model with an aluminium shield modelled with she ll elements is presented.