HFSS15: The Adaptive Analysis Process

An adaptive analysis is a solution process in which the mesh is refined iteratively in regions where the error is high, which increases the solution’s precision. You set the criteria that control mesh refinement during an adaptive field solution. Many problems can be solved using only adaptive refinement.

Following is the general process followed during an adaptive analysis:

1. HFSS generates an initial mesh, and applies lambda refinement and manual refinements.

2. Using this mesh, HFSS computes the electromagnetic fields that exist inside the structure when it is excited at the solution frequency. (If you are running a fast frequency sweep, an adaptive solution is performed only at the specified solution frequency.)

3. Based on the current finite element solution, HFSS estimates the regions of the problem domain where the exact solution has strong error. Tetrahedra in these regions are refined.

4. HFSS generates another solution using the refined mesh.

5. HFSS recomputes the error, and the iterative process (solve — error analysis — refine) repeats until the convergence criteria are satisfied or the requested number of adaptive passes is completed.

6. If a frequency sweep is being performed, HFSS then solves the problem at the other frequency points without further refining the mesh.