This electromagnetic-thermal co-simulation tutorial is based on a simple coil-and-core induction heating case with two-way 3D data transfers. In this co-simulation, Maxwell performs an electromagnetic Eddy-Current (steady-state) analysis and Mechanical performs a transient thermal analysis, and System Coupling coordinates the simultaneous execution of their solvers and the data transfers between them.

For more efficient handling of the disparate electromagnetic and thermal timescales, System Coupling allows you to control the frequency of participant updates. By default, Maxwell is updated with every coupling step, but for this case, you will set Maxwell to update only at a specified interval. Mechanical will continue to work with data obtained from the most recent Maxwell update.

Each participant is always updated for the first coupling step of a run, regardless of its update frequency settings. When Maxwell is configured for interval updates, the interval pattern is separate from the first coupling step. For example, with an update interval of 5, Maxwell will execute an update for coupling step 5, 10, 15, and so on.