These mesh guidelines are very important as induction heating is dependent upon the induced magnetic field brought about by the alternating current in the induction coil. Approximately 86% of the induced current occurs in this skin thickness layer hence several layers of elements are required in these regions. These guidelines much be followed for all Mold block (3D) and Mold Insert (3D) components.
For induction heating, assign the property Mold block (3D) to the mold block, Mold Insert (3D) to all mold components, including the magnetic plate, and Induction coil (3D) to the induction coil.
Meshing components for induction heating requires that you know:
- the nature of all the materials of the various mold components
- the properties of all the various mold components materials
- the frequency of the generator used for generating the current
- the skin thickness depth of all the mold insert components in the mold
- the local edge length on the mold inserts and mold block
Use the
skin thickness formula to calculate the skin thickness, then divide the skin thickness by 0.8 and set this to be the local edge length on the insert or mold block of interest. When meshing the mold, set the number of enhancement layers to preferably 4. However, if there are too many elements in the insert reduce it to 3. Mesh the insert and check the number of the enhancement layers by moving sections of the insert into different layers and then measuring and counting the number of enhancement layers in the skin thickness. Use the
Scale factor to cluster the enhancement layers closer to the wall if need be.
Note: Note the induction coil itself does not require enhancement layers, only the mold components do.
If the number of elements in the model is increasing too much for your computer system, you can reduce these stringent meshing rules to only the inserts between the induction coil and the part.
Note: These meshing guidelines are relevant to all the mold components, however, they are critical between the induction coil and the part.
This whole procedure is an iterative process until there is good balance between the number of elements and the mesh.
Once the components have been meshed, select the correct materials for each Mold Insert (3D) element type, Mold Block (3D) property and populate the Electrical tab in the material properties. There are no defaults; you must enter these values based on your own model and setup.
Note: If the final model has fewer than 10million tetrahedral elements then at least 32GB of memory is required for the analysis and general modeling. If your final model is between 10 and 20million elements then at least 64GB of memory is required.