This tutorial demonstrates a co-simulation of the induction heating process using a moving bar and a stationary copper coil, as shown below.

Figure 8: Moving bar with a stationary coil

The moving bar has an initial temperature of 22C and is coupled on both participant interfaces. Although Maxwell runs an Eddy-Current analysis, the motion of the bar is dependent on the coupling time, which is provided by System Coupling.

The Maxwell simulation includes an AC power supply that generates an excitation of 2000 A at a frequency of 10 kHz. The bar moves in a negative x direction with a constant velocity of 7mm/s. The Fluent simulation includes a motion profile consistent with the motion defined in Maxwell.

Maxwell simulates the electromagnetic coupling between the bar and coil and provides losses to Fluent. Fluent executes the thermal simulation on the bar and sends the calculated temperatures back to Maxwell, which updates its temperature-dependent properties accordingly and then continues the co-simulation until the transient temperature is reached.