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Ansys Maxwell
Low Frequency EM Field Simulation

Ansys Maxwell is an EM field solver for electric machines, transformers, wireless charging, permanent magnet latches, actuators and other electric mechanical devices. It solves static, frequency-domain and time-varying magnetic and electric fields. Maxwell also offers specialized design interfaces for electric machines and power converters.

Low-Frequency Electromagnetic Simulation for Electric Machines

With Maxwell, you can precisely characterize the nonlinear, transient motion of electromechanical components and their effects on the drive circuit and control system design. By leveraging Maxwell’s advanced electromagnetic field solvers and seamlessly linking them to the integrated circuit and systems simulation technology, you can understand the performance of electromechanical systems long before building a prototype in hardware.

  • electromagnetics icon
    Advanced Magnetic Modeling
  • electromagnetics icon
    Multiphysics Couplings
  • electromagnetics icon
    ISO 26262 Compliant
  • electromagnetics icon
    Bi-Directional CAD Integration
  • electromagnetics icon
    Electric Drive Modeling

Product Specs

Maxwell offers trusted simulation of low-frequency electromagnetic fields in industrial components. It includes 3-D/2-D magnetic transient, AC electromagnetic, magnetostatic, electrostatic, DC conduction and electric transient solvers to accurately solve for field parameters including force, torque, capacitance, inductance, resistance and impedance.

  • Reduced-Order Modeling
  • Slice-Only Solving
  • Co-sim Transient Performance
  • Automatic Adaptive Meshing
  • 2D and 3D EM Solvers
  • Component to System
Ansys Electronics

Slice-only Technology

Slice-only technology enables a cyclic repeatability simulation technique for electric motor applications. The analysis has been improved by efficiently solving just a slice of the motor, employing non-planar boundary conditions, using symmetric mesh and replicating results to the full model. To learn more about how “slice-only” technology helps simulate complex electric motors, read the blog: How to Model and Simulate Complex Electric Motors.

July 2023

What's New

Ansys Maxwell continues to innovate, providing faster simulations and facilitating PCB designers' work for consumer electronics and electrical engineers in the energy sector.

3D Layout Component
3D Layout Component for NVH Analysis

Maxwell predicts EM forces (Lorentz) in PCB traces allowing for NVH analysis and eliminating unwanted sound and vibration in PCBs. Automate the component layout workflow and easily add or remove any PCB components from the existing layout.

A-Phi Transient Solver
HPC-TDM for A-Phi Transient Solver

Reduce time-to-solution of complex PCBs by performing extensive time-dependent simulations and simultaneous solving time steps using HPC. This new capability allows for faster design optimization and a potential increase in the reliability of the final PCB design.

Ansys Chip Simulation
Electric Arc Workflow Simulation

Speed up the design process and remove potential sources of error with efficient, robust multiphysics and an automated workflow. This new capability can eliminate expensive and destructive testing of electromagnetic equipment, such as switchgears.

Induction Machine ROM-based Efficiency Map
Induction Machine

Induction Machine ROM-based Efficiency Map – Reduced Order Modeling in the electric machine toolkit shrinks an FEA solution a circuit simulation and improves performance.

Quasi Static Solvers
Quasi Static Solvers

Performance improvements for quasi-static solvers help PCB simulations where the conduction path includes complex geometry, reducing processing from hours to minutes.

ISO26262 Certification
Functional Safety Compliance

Ansys Maxwell helps perform safety analysis and design according to ISO 26262 for electrical and electronic (E/E) systems. Safety is one of the critical issues in developing electric motors used in passenger road vehicles.

Maxwell Applications

View all Applications

Power transformer simulation using Ansys Maxwell
Power Transformers

Ansys provides a comprehensive transformer solution inclusive of electromagnetics (frequency dependent, nonlinear), multiphysics (force density to Mechanical or loss densities to thermal analysis) and system-level model (frequency dependent ROM or nonlinear ROM) for circuit and system performance.

Simulation of magnetic actuator using Ansys Maxwell
Magnetic Actuators

This design methodology covers design and analysis of magnetic actuators and solenoids including forces, inductances, flux densities, closing time, eddy effects, thermal performance, as well as incorporation into a system-level simulation.

Maxwell Magnetic Sensor
Magnetic Sensors

Ansys Magnetic Sensor simulation tools offer a complete solution integrating electromagnetic, circuit, and system-level engineering simulation in a common desktop environment.

Induction heating simulation using Ansys Maxwell
Induction Heating

Induction Heating applications require a robust Multiphysics simulation framework to intelligently couple the electromagnetic and thermal behavior together.  Ansys tools provide best-in-class tools and workflows to enable this technology.

Circuit breaker and switch simulation using Ansys Maxwell
Circuit Breakers and Switches

Circuit breakers and switches involve electric fields and coupled electromagnetics with mechanical stress, thermal and fluid flow.  Ansys provides a complete solution covering all aspects of circuit breaker design.

Low-frequency biomedical electromagnetics simulation
Low Frequency Biomedical

For applications that require low frequency electromagnetics including wireless charging, bio-impedance, defibrillators, nerve stimulation, bio-sensing, MRI, and inclusion of human body models, Ansys provides solutions across all physics and many other biomedical applications.


MAXWELL CAPABILITIES

Increase machine efficiency and reduce time-to-market with Ansys Maxwell simulation

Customizable modeling capabilities, automatic adaptive meshing and advanced high-performance computing technology allow designers to solve complete high-performance electromechanical power systems. Automatically generate nonlinear equivalent circuits and frequency-dependent state-space models from field parameters that may be further used in system and circuit simulation to achieve the highest possible fidelity on SIL (software-in-the-loop) and HIL (hardware-in-the-loop) systems. Ansys simulation technology enables you to predict with confidence that your products will thrive in the real world.

Customers trust our electromagnetic analysis software to help ensure the integrity of their products and drive business success through innovation.

Maxwell Capabilities

 

Key Features

Maxwell is an industry-leading electromagnetic field simulation software for the design and analysis of electric motors, actuators, sensors, transformers and other electromagnetic and electromechanical devices.

  • Low-frequency EM simulation
  • Automatic, adaptive meshing
  • Multidomain system modeling
  • Expert design interfaces
  • Optimetrics
  • Granta Materials Data
  • ISO 26262 compliant

A key benefit of Maxwell is its automatic adaptive meshing techniques, which require you to specify only the geometry, material properties and the desired output to obtain an accurate solution. Maxwell’s meshing process uses a highly robust volumetric meshing technique and includes a multithreading capability that reduces the amount of memory used and accelerates time to solution. This proven technology eliminates the complexity of building and refining a finite element mesh and makes advanced numerical analysis practical for all levels of your organization.

Maxwell's electromagnetic field solvers are linked through Ansys Workbench to easily set up and analyze complex coupled-physics behaviors such as deformed mesh feedback structures, stress and strain feedback on magnetic properties, EM fluids and acoustics.

Perform advanced simulation calculations such as core loss calculations, vector hysteresis, four-quadrant simulation for permanent magnets, magnetostriction and magnetoelastic analysis, Litz Wire Loss and manufacturing effects on loss computation.

Electric machines and power converters require significantly different design criteria and simulation, which is why Maxwell provides specialized interfaces for each.

In addition to providing classical motor performance calculations, RMxprt automatically generates geometry, motion and mechanical setup, material properties, core loss, winding and source setup for detailed finite element analysis in Maxwell.

A multi-domain power electronics simulator for electrical, magnetic, mechanical, fluid, and thermal systems that seamlessly integrates three fundamental component libraries: circuits, block diagrams, and state machines. Simplorer provides an integrated analysis thanks to its connection with EM (Maxwell, PExprt, RMxprt, Q3D, HFSS) and thermal tools (Ansys CFD, Ansys Icepak). 

Simplorer also includes the ability to characterize high fidelity power semiconductor models for thermal and EMI/EMC simulations. In addition, Simplorer’s model libraries include VHDL-AMS capability and existing controls systems and customer developed models.  

Power Electronics Expert (PExprt) is a magnetic design and optimization tool for ferrite transformers and inductors including, multi-winding transformers, coupled inductors, and flyback components. PExprt's template-based interface for transformers and inductors can automatically create a design from voltage waveform or converter inputs. The auto-design process considers all combinations of core shapes, sizes, materials, gaps, wire types and gauges, and winding strategies to optimize the magnetic design.

It contains manufacturer libraries for common components. It also combines FEA-based solutions to include skin and proximity effects, and gap effects due to magnetic fringing. Additionally, it calculates winding losses, core Losses, R, L, C parameters and temperature rise, and couples to Simplorer using a frequency dependent netlist for the simulated component.

You can output transient electromagnetic forces from Ansys Maxwell into Ansys Motion, extending electromagnetic interaction to rigid body dynamics to enhance the overall noise-vibration solution.

A new Maxwell transient solver provides multiterminal conductor support on a single conduction path.

MAXWELL RESOURCES & EVENTS

Featured Webinars

Webinar on Demand
Ansys On Demand Webinar
Wireless Charging Systems – Create Better Designs Through Simulation

Learn how to model and analyze inductive-based wireless charging systems using Ansys Maxwell for optimum design.

Webinar Series
Ansys Electric Machine Webinar
Electric Machine Webinar Series

This webinar series focuses on design and analysis of electric machines, and presents many of the technology capabilities offered by Ansys simulation tools including full-length presentations as well as short demonstrations.

On Demand Webinar
Maxwell Ansys Overview video
Ansys Maxwell: An In-Depth Overview

 Join us for this webinar which delivers a detailed analysis of Ansys Maxwell’s key capabilities, such as automatic adaptive meshing, high-performance computing, multidomain system modeling, power electronic circuits, advanced material modeling and more.



Case Studies

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Ansys + Atomberg

Atomberg Technology aspires to be an innovator in the world of household appliances by coming up with smart, connected, and intelligent appliances that will disrupt the appliances market forever.

Simulation Converter

SuperGrid Institute Uses Ansys’ Solutions to Develop Power Electronics Technologies for Future Power Grids

SuperGrid Institute can efficiently design and simulate power converters thanks to the nonlinear and linear solvers in Ansys software.



FAQs

Ansys Maxwell is an electromagnetic field solver for electric machines, transformers, wireless charging, permanent magnet latches, actuators, and other electromechanical devices. It solves static, frequency-domain and time-varying magnetic and electric fields. Maxwell also offers specialized design interfaces for electric machines and power converters.

You can learn about Ansys Maxwell in several different ways depending on whether you are an existing customer or a student or non-customer.

This free course, available on our Ansys Innovation Courses Site, you will learn the basics of Ansys Maxwell design and the LF simulation workflow.

These Maxwell courses are available to Ansys Customers.

Ansys Maxwell interfaces with Ansys Motor-CAD, Ansys HFSS, Ansys Icepak, Ansys Mechanical, Ansys CFD, Ansys Motion, Ansys TwinBuider and Ansys optiSLang.

Click Maxwell>Draw>Region

  • This displays the Region dialog box. You can define the region padding as a percentage, relative position, or absolute position.
  • For the Padding data, select either Pad all directions similarly, Pad individual directions, or Transverse padding.

To download Ansys Maxwell, you must be an Ansys customer and have access to the Customer Portal. Ansys Maxwell is included in the Electronics software bundle and is also included in the free Ansys Student bundle.

Ansys Maxwell can be used in a variety of applications, including electric machines, transformers, wireless charging, permanent magnet latches, actuators, sensors, conveters, electromagnetic shielding, and other electromechanical devices.

To solve for a capacitance, inductance, impedance, or conductance matrix:

  • Click Maxwell 3D or Maxwell 2D, and then select Parameters>Assign>Matrix.

The Matrix dialog box appears.

  • Click the Setup tab.
  • Type a name for the matrix in the Name box.
  • To specify the sources to be included in the matrix, do one of the following:
    • For 3D Electrostatic, 2D and 3D Magnetostatic, 2D and 3D Eddy Current designs, select or clear the Include check box for any of the listed sources.
    • For Maxwell 2D designs, the return path for each source may be specified. By default, the return path is at infinity; however, any conductor with a source specified can act as the return path.
    • For 2D Electrostatic, 2D and 3D DC Conduction, and 2D and 3D AC Conduction, select or clear the Signal or Ground check box for any of the listed sources. Grounded terminals are treated as reference voltages with zero voltage values.
    • Excitations checked as Signal will be in the matrix (excited one at a time with 1V during the parameters extraction process). Those excitations checked as Ground will be kept at 0 V and will not be part of the matrix. Any excitations not checked will not be considered.

For more details, Ansys customers have access to all "how to" information.

The same information can be found on the Maxwell.pdf file which is part of the installation AnsysEM folder.

 

To import a 3D CAD file:

  • Click Modeler>Import.

The Import File dialog box appears.

  • Select the file type you want from the Files of type drop-down menu.
  • Select any import options available for the selected file type.
  • Use the file browser to find the file you want to import.
  • Click Open. The file is imported into the active Modeler window.

For tips on dealing with very complex models, see Technical Notes: Handling Complicated Models

Ansys software is accessible

It's vital to Ansys that all users, including those with disabilities, can access our products. As such, we endeavor to follow accessibility requirements based on the US Access Board (Section 508), Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and the current format of the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT).

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