Application of the fast multipole method to the 2D finite element-boundary element analysis of electromechanical devices

The present paper deals with the fast multipole acceleration of the 2D finite element-boundary element modelling of electromechanical devices. It is shown that the fast multipole method, usually applied to large 3D problems, can also lead to a reduction in computational time when dealing with relatively small 2D problems, provided that an adaptive truncation scheme for the expansion of the 2D Laplace Green function is used. As an application example, the 2D hybrid modelling of a linear actuator is studied, taking into account saturation, the voltage supply and the mechanical equation. The computational cost without and with fast multipole acceleration is discussed for both the Linear and nonlinear case.