Application fields of Elmer

General discussion about Elmer

What are your main application fields of Elmer?

Heat transfer
86
27%
Fluid mechanics
76
24%
Solid mechanics
62
19%
Electromagnetics
70
22%
Quantum mechanics
8
2%
Something else (please specify)
21
7%
 
Total votes: 323

lazyTom
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Re: Application fields of Elmer

Post by lazyTom »

Hi Peter,

that is very interesting, I'll have a go and see how it works.

I assume that the Conforming BC examples can be found in the test cases directory. Please let me know if there are any other sources.

Thanks,

Marco
Brando
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Re: Application fields of Elmer

Post by Brando »

Hi,

I'm fully new to Elmer and really like the multiphysical approach of it. So far, I've only been involved in mechanics using commercial codes such as Abaqus and Ansys. But now I have a new application plus I am looking for good open source codes:

I want to model the movement (without electrochemical reactions for now) of small parts in a rotating electroplating drum. This involves a free surface sloshing-like fluid boundary (drum is ca. half filled with electrolyte) interacting with the parts. I was thinking of either:
- using discrete particles for the parts (only spherical particles possible?), or
- FSI (only possible with elasticity or also with rigid bodies?)
.

It would be very helpful if an experienced user could judge whether Elmer could be a suitable choice here?

Kind regards
Brando
raback
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Re: Application fields of Elmer

Post by raback »

Hi Brando,

This might be outside the capabilities of Elmer. Sloshing has been done only for fluids that do it in a civilized manner (using moving mesh & ALE formulation). Severe sloshing would be better of with VOF or SMH methods. We have levelset but it is pretty simple one and does not conserve mass. Elmer does have particles but there can be no shear between them currently. I would probably look at codes that were built on particles in mind. FEM excels on PDEs that have some minimization principle associated and you've none of that here.

-Peter
Brando
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Re: Application fields of Elmer

Post by Brando »

Thanks for the fast response, Peter. Yes, I am in parallel looking into codes that enable the coupling between SPH and DEM (like SPHysics). I was just hoping to find a more general purpose program (Elmer) for that, so I can also use it for other tasks ...

Anyway, thanks for the valuable advice and regards.

Brando
Jenwel
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Re: Application fields of Elmer

Post by Jenwel »

fmarinho wrote: 30 Dec 2015, 19:30 Hi all! Would be interesting to have the Poisson solver for the electromagnetics package to be able employ non-linear densities which are dependant on the potential itself. That way it would be feasible to simulate semiconductor devices such as pn junctions, semiconductor detectors, solar panels parts and so on. Is there anyone working on that aspect at the moment?
Hi,
Recently, I am also looking forward the simulation of semiconductor devices, e.g., the solar cells.
Can anyone give some hits for improving the current version of Elmer for simulating solar cells?

Thank you in advance.

Jenwel
raback
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Re: Application fields of Elmer

Post by raback »

Hi
Can anyone give some hits for improving the current version of Elmer for simulating solar cells?
Nobody of the current Elmer team has background in solar cells but this is certainly a great application field. So it would be best if you could write down the system of equations you need to solve. When we see those we could quickly see what there is and what is missing.

-Peter
Jenwel
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Re: Application fields of Elmer

Post by Jenwel »

raback wrote: 27 Jun 2022, 21:17 Hi
Can anyone give some hits for improving the current version of Elmer for simulating solar cells?
Nobody of the current Elmer team has background in solar cells but this is certainly a great application field. So it would be best if you could write down the system of equations you need to solve. When we see those we could quickly see what there is and what is missing.

-Peter
Dear Dr. Peter,

Thank you so much for the positive response.
Currently, some teams from other universities have developed the software for simulating solar cell, e.g. PC1D, PC3D, Quokka3. Unfortunately, few of them considers the multi-physics problem in simulating solar cells. This is my initial motivation to ask previous questions. Hopefully, we can solve multi-physics problem in design or analysis of solar cells, especially the novel PERC, TOPCon, heterojunction solar cells.

The basic equations to describe the carriers in the semiconductor are the carriers transport equations coupled with Poisson’s equation. The transport equations for electrons and holes are derived from the Boltzmann transport equation with some assumptions. The 1D or quasi-1D model can be discussed first. The following preprint and open access paper details these equations:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 0216304374
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/46362

Besides, any further collaborations with our research team are also welcome. In recent decade, we have studied the model of solar cells, PV modules, and corresponding application of these physical models in power control, fault diagnosis, etc. of PV systems. We also hope the Elmer can solve the multi-physics problem in solar cells, after the possible collaborations with Elmer team.
My Email: jwzhang@hhu.edu.cn

Best Regards,
Dr. Jingwei Zhang
raback
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Re: Application fields of Elmer

Post by raback »

Hi,

I quickly looked at the papers. It seems that there is no lack of details in this field as well!

A challenge is to get some benefit of the multiphysics features before having to deal with all the complexities of the current state-of-the-art 1d models. Is there any simple problem that would benefit from other fields so that not everything needs to be in place. A practical goal would be to encapsulate the features of solar cells into some modules that could be developed without the constant awareness of the Elmer core team. But perhaps this comes naturally.

-Peter
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