A method to transfer concentrated Lorentz forces to a finite element mechanical model

The design of superconducting magnets is based on several tools. It is often the case that a specific software is used for magnetic analyses, while a different one solves the mechanical problem of displacements and stresses. To streamline the study, it may be convenient to compute the electromagnetic forces on the coil in the magnetic code and then to transfer them directly to the structural mesh used in the second software. Here, a method to transfer such forces based on the shape functions of the mechanical finite elements is presented. With this approach, the nodes of the structural mesh do not need to coincide with the points of applications of the Lorentz forces in the magnetic model.