student version of FEKO (FEKO LITE) - can't change to metallic material

Rahul_P1

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Does FEKO LITE not let you change to metallic material properties? I have added metallic materials to my media, but it wont let me change my object to anything other than PEC, a dielectric, or free space.

 

For example, shown below I have a dielectric 'vaseline' and a metallic 'NiZn' but when I right-click on region 1 I can only change it to the dielectric 

 

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Altair Forum User

Hello Rahul,

 

Thanks for the question.  There is no restriction in FEKO LITE for the techniques that can be modelled, but rather in terms of the size of the problems that can be solved.  

To get the effect you need, you need to set the face properties rather than the region properties (see the image).

 

FEKO's default solver uses a Method of Moments (MoM) code that operates be meshing and solving surface currents.  The concept of 'skin effect' is used for metallic faces that bound a region and is what the solver uses in the calculation.  An explanation for this can be found in the User Manual ( Ch. 3.3.2 - Media -> Defining metallic media ).  In particular, I think you are experiencing:

Note that it is not possible to apply a user defined metallic medium directly to a solid region (except for the special case of the Perfect electric conductor medium). The medium of the internal region should rather be set to free space (or dielectric) and a 'thick' metallic medium property applied to the faces bounding the region. 'Thick' here implies that the face property should be set much thicker than the medium skin depth.

 

 

If anything is still unclear, please feel free to let us know.

 

- Andries

 

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