This article discusses the 4 best free electromagnetic simulation software for Windows. This software helps you to simulate electromagnetic waves and their behavior around them. All of these are mainly used to teach students about various aspects of EM waves through simulation.
In some of these simulation Software, you get some simulation parts like Bar Magnet, Pickup Coil, Electromagnet, etc. The most common simulation scenario to help you understand about electromagnetism is Bar Magnet. In the Bar Magnet simulation, you get a compass along with a bar magnet which you can move closer to or away from the compass to show the effect of the EM Field on the compass.
This simulator also provides various parameters that can be changed to understand the effect of various variables on the simulation results. Some of the parameters provided by this EM simulator like: Magnet Bar Strength, Magnet Polarity, Distance between magnet and compass, etc., Plus, you also get some useful options, like: You enable or disable magnetic field inside, field meter, electric field , static fields and more. Here are the 4 best free electromagnetic simulation software:
1. Radio Waves & Electromagnetic Fields
Radio Waves & Electromagnetic Fields is a Java-based electromagnetic simulation software for Windows. This software helps you to simulate the behavior of radio and electromagnetic waves between transmitter and receiver in different scenarios.
In any of the scenarios, you can change the height of the transmitter to analyze the behavior of the EM waves. To change the height of the Transmitter, it provides a Transmitter Movement Section which provides the option to manually or automatically (oscillate) change the altitude of the transmitter. In case of automatic (oscillating) option, you can also vary the frequency and oscillation of the transmitter amplitude of the simulated waveform. In this Software, you get three important parts namely Field View Type, Sense Field and Displayed Field which allows you to simulate various fields and waves.
Let’s take a quick look at the three parts this software has to offer:
- Field View Type: Using this section, you can simulate radio waves, add vectors with radio waves, view full field wave simulation with polarity change, or disable wave simulation completely.
- Field Sense: This section helps you to simulate the forces on electrons or electric fields with respect to waves.
- Displayed Fields: Used to simulate the Radiation plane and Static plane of the transmitting antenna.
Overall, it is an excellent software for simulating various aspects of electromagnetic waves. [Download Radio Waves & Electromagnetic Fields].
2. Faraday’s Electromagnetic Lab
Faraday’s Electromagnetic Lab is a Java-based electromagnetic simulation software for Windows. This software was built to help students learn Faraday’s electromagnetic law using various simulations. In total there are 5 different simulation sections provided by this Software to simulate various electromagnetic experiments.
Let’s take a look at all the five available electromagnetic simulation sections:
- Magnet Bar: In this section, you get Magnet Bar and Compass to simulate the effect of electromagnetic waves when the bar magnet is taken closer to or away from the compass. Here, you can also see the same poles repel each other and different poles attract each other. The bar magnetic field is also available where you can increase or decrease the strength of the bar magnet, reverse its polarity, activate or deactivate the inner magnetic field, etc.
- Pickup Coil: In it, you get a bar magnet and a coil connected with a bulb to simulate the generation of electricity when a magnet is moved inside the coil. Plus, the option to vary the strength of the magnet, reverse its polarity, replace the bulb with a voltmeter, etc. Also available to simulate various scenarios.
- Electromagnet: This section is used to simulate an electromagnetic field when an AC or DC current source is used to supply power to the coil. At any time you can increase or decrease the number of coils and activate or deactivate the compass, electron, and field meter of the Electromagnets Section.
- Transformers: As the name implies, this section is used to simulate a transformer by using one coil with an AC or DC current source and the other coil with a bulb or voltmeter. To make variations in the simulation, you can vary the coil area and activate or deactivate the electromagnetic field, compass, field meter, etc.
- Generator: In this section, you get a simple power generation model which shows that the flow of water revolves around a bar magnet which in turn changes the electromagnetic field. Changes in the electromagnetic field create a flux in a nearby coil and generate electricity. Several variations such as changing the coil loop area, number of loops, bar magnet strength, etc. can be made.
Overall, it is an excellent software for simulating various aspects of electromagnetic waves. [Download Faraday’s Electromagnetic Lab].
3. Magnets and Compass
Magnet and Compass is the next free electromagnetic simulation software for Windows. It is one of the simplest simulation software through which you can simulate the effects of electromagnetic fields on the surrounding area. In it, you get a bar magnet, compass and field indicator to simulate different scenarios.
The most obvious scenario is to move the magnet toward or away from the compass to observe the movement of the compass needle. Another thing that you can do is change the polarity of the magnets to observe the effect of different poles on the compass. You can also increase or decrease the strength of the magnet to observe the change in the strength of the magnetic field. Simulation of the earth’s magnetic field is also available in it, to see the structure of the earth’s electromagnetic field.
Overall, this is a good software for students who want to understand more about electromagnetism. [Download Magnet and Compass].
4. FreeEM3DS
FreeEM3DS or Electromagnetic 3D Simulator is another free electromagnetic simulation software for Windows. It is an equation based simulator where you can simulate electromagnetic fields and waves.
In it, you can also create designs for various electrical devices and analyze their EM fields. To design devices, this software provides various tools such as Thick Stripes, Dielectric Resonators, Piezo Materials, etc. Plus, various tutorials are also provided in it to help you design the device. After designing the device, you can run the simulation by going to its Tools menu.
The whole simulation is running in the background, so you will not be able to see it, but you can still get all your answers from the obtained simulation results. In the result, you get various graphs showing the simulated values, losses, phase difference, group delay, VSWR, etc.
In this Software, you can also perform Electromagnetic Analysis and Lumped Element Analysis on various materials. Plus, several other handy tools like 2D graphing, 3D Graphing, Parameter Optimizer, Variable Tuner, etc., are also available to help you view and analyze electromagnetic fields in the form of graphs and values. [Download FreeEM3DS].
Notes: This software is free for personal use only. To use it commercially, you need to buy the paid version of this Software.
Those are the 4 best free electromagnetic simulation software. Of the 4 software above, Faraday’s Electromagnetic Lab is my favorite software because it provides many easy-to-understand EM wave simulations. Every simulation part of this Software is based on certain Faraday’s laws which makes it an ideal Software for teachers and students.
