A coupled boundary finite element method for the computation of magnetically and electrostatically levitated droplet shapes

A coupled finite element and boundary element method is developed to predic t the magnetic vector and scalar potential distributions in the droplets le vitated in an alternating magnetic or electrostatic field. The computationa l algorithm entails the application of boundary elements in the region of f ree space and finite elements in the droplet region, the two being coupled along the droplet-air interface. The coupled boundary and finite element sc heme is further integrated with a WRM-based algorithm to predict the free s urface deformation of magnetically and electrostatically levitated droplets . Several corner treatments for the boundary and finite element coupling an d their implications to free surface calculations are discussed. Detailed f ormulation and numerical implementation are given. Numerical results are co mpared with available analytical solutions whenever available; A selection of computed results is presented for magnetically or electrostatically levi tated droplets under both terrestrial and microgravity conditions. Copyrigh t (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.