A symmetric BEM–FEM coupling for the three-dimensional magnetostatic problem using scalar potentials

In this paper we introduce a new symmetric BEM–FEM method for solving the magnetostatic problem in the whole space R3R3. This method is based on a formulation of the problem in terms of the total scalar potential (in the magnetic materials) and the reduced scalar potential (outside). This formulation is adequate even for magnetic materials that present non-trivial topologies and it leads to a convergent Galerkin method. We provide an error estimate and report some numerical results which confirm the theoretical convergence behaviour.