Calculation of the Magnetic Field Intensity in a Rectangular Conductor Carrying Current in Electromagnetism Introductory Courses

This paper describes a type of didactic material used when teaching electromagnetism. The purpose is to guide the students to verify the results of a Finite Element (FE) simulation using those obtained analytically. This procedure has shown to be of great help during their learning of the FE method. The example in this paper uses a 2D analytical method to estimate the magnetic field generated by the circulation of a direct current through a finite cross-section conductor in free space. The results of the analytical method are compared with those of a FE model using COMSOL Multiphysics. The calculations by both methods give a relative error of about 2%. We have more teaching materials to learn the FE method through simple geometries, which are verifiable analytically. We give a list of electromagnetism exercises for readers interested in this teaching philosophy.