Instructor

Kulkarni S V

Semester

Autumn ‘21

Course Difficulty

Moderate
The course covers a lot of content in both the low frequency and high frequency ranges of electromagnetics. So in terms of content to cover, the course can be considered slightly difficult. The course project also requires a fairly rigorous understanding of the numerical technique chosen for implementation. The examination questions on the other hand are quite straightforward.

Time Commitment Required

The instructor explains concepts very well in class and spends enough time to ensure that everyone grasps them well. So one doesn’t have to spend much time outside class to cover the course content. However, the course project would need a significant amount of time outside class hours to do it well, especially towards the end of the course.

Grading Policy and Statistics

Available on ASC

Pre-requisites

PH108 (the intro to EM course) and MA214 (intro to numerical analysis) is very helpful
Basic knowledge of any computational numerical technique such as FDM, FEM, etc would be an added advantage, though not necessary

Evaluation Scheme

Midsem - 20%
Endsem - 40%
Minor Project - 10%
Major Project - 30%

Topics Covered in the Course

Introduction to electromagnetic fields: review of vector analysis, electric and magnetic potentials, boundary conditions, Maxwells equations, diffusion equation, Poynting vector, wave equation Finite Difference Method (FDM): Finite Difference schemes, treatment of irregular boundaries, accuracy and stability of FD solutions, Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method Finite Element Method (FEM): overview of FEM, Variational and Galerkin Methods, shape functions, lower and higher order elements, vector elements, 2D and 3D finite elements, efficient finite element computations Method of Moments (MOM): integral formulation, Greens functions and numerical integration, other integral methods: boundary element method, charge simulation method Special topics: hybrid methods, coupled circuit - field computations, electromagnetic - thermal and electromagnetic - structural coupled computations, solution of equations Applications: low frequency and high frequency electrical devices, static / time-harmonic / transient problems in transformers, rotating machines, waveguides, antennas, scatterers

Teaching Style

Live interactions in all classes
The instructor explains concepts very well in class and spends enough time to ensure that everyone grasps them well. He is also very approachable and is also genuinely interested in everyone’s projects and ensures that students take away some important skills from the course.

Tutorials/Assignments/Projects

The project is the main part of the course. Students have to implement one of the numerical techniques taught in class using a programming language of their choice and solve some practical problem using it. There’s a lot of learning to be gained from it, though it requires a significant amount of time outside class hours to do it well, especially towards the end of the course.

Feedback on Exams

Exams cover a lot of content, but the questions are straightforward and can easily be solved after going through lecs/slides. Cheatsheets are allowed, but nothing else.

Motivation for taking this course

To understand the key EM concepts involved in the working of low frequency electric machines and the numerical techniques used to analyse them.

Course Highlights

The course project
Doing the project well ensures that students have a good understanding of the EM concepts involved in the problem and also a practical understanding of how commercial EM software solve these problems

Course Importance

Very useful for those who expect to work with electric machines (low and/or high frequency) in the future. The course also summarizes the various EM concepts one has to know to analyze such electric machines.

How strongly would I recommend this course?

Very highly recommended, especially for those that expect to work with electric machines in the future

When to take this course?

7th sem
Would not recommend taking it in a sem where one already has other important commitments (such as placements, apping, etc) as the course project requires a significant amount of time outside class hours to do it well, especially towards the end of the course.

Going Forward

Many research projects are available in this field
The skills taken away from the course would highly benefit engineers working with electric machines as well

Review By: Nandagopal Vidhu