SPHERICAL FINITE-ELEMENT ANALYSIS

Finite element analysis techniques are applied to the sphere. The sphe re is subdivided into non-rectangular linear hexahedra except at the p olar axis, where they are wedges. An automatic mesh generation compute r program, based on the work of Sepulveda [1], is used to assign node and element numbers. Equation numbers are assigned to minimize the ban dwidth of the ''stiffness matrix.'' To avoid computation artifacts, it is important to subdivide the sphere into elements whose sides are ap proximately equal. Two examples are presented, (a) the ideal magnet, a nd (b) a three-layered conducting sphere. To demonstrate the versatili ty of the method described in the paper, a low-resistivity region was introduced in the three-layered conducting sphere to show how the equi potential and current flow lines are affected.