The Bean model in superconductivity: Variational formulation and numerical solution (Q2564470)

The author derives and discusses a quasivariational problem the solution of which is the difference between an external magnetic field and the full magnetic field acting on a superconducting medium. The unilateral condition restricting the solution is an upper bound on the current density. An equivalent formulation for the current density is obtained which corresponds to the bounded domain occupied by the superconductor. Two cases are considered in more detail (including numerical results based on finite difference discretization in time and finite elements in space, solving the resulting constrained optimization problem by underrelaxation): the case of two-dimensional and that of axially symmetric current distribution.