Parallel computing applied to inductance calculation for flexible inductors

Abstract

Purpose - The motivation for this research workisthe need foranefficient software tool for inductance calculation of components in flexible electronics. A software package PROVOD has been developed and it has produced very accurate results but the applied numerical method can lead to a huge amount of calculations. The aim of this research is to apply the parallel computing to this specific computational technique and to investigate the impact of increasing the number of parallel executing threads. Design/methodology/approach - The largest possible amount of operations is put in parallel using the fact that the inductance between two segments is a sum of independent elements. OpenMP and Microsoft's Concurrency Runtime have been tested as parallel programming techniques. Findings - Parallel computing with a different number of threads (up to 24) has been tested with OpenMP. A significant increase in computational speed (up to 21 times) has been obtained. Research limitations/implications - The research is limited by the available number of parallel processors. Practical implications - Accurate and fast inductance calculation for flexible electronic components is possible to achieve. The impact of parallel processing is proven. Social implications - The proposed method of calculation acceleration of inductances can be helpful in the design and optimization of new flexible devices in electronics. Originality/value - Parallel computing is applied to the design of flexible electronic components. It is shown that a large number of parallel processors can be efficiently used in this type of calculation. The obtained results are interesting for people involved in the design of flexible components, and generally, for researchers/engineers dealing with similar electromagnetic problems. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.