A staggered high-dimensional Proper Generalised Decomposition for coupled magneto-mechanical problems with application to MRI scanners

Abstract Manufacturing new Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners represents a computational challenge to industry, due to the large variability in material parameters and geometrical configurations that need to be tested during the early design phase. This process can be highly optimised through the employment of user-friendly computational metamodels constructed on the basis of Reduced Order Modelling (ROM) techniques, where high-dimensional parametric offline solutions are obtained, stored and assimilated in order to be efficiently queried in real time. This paper presents a novel Proper Generalised Decomposition (PGD) based metamodel for the analysis of electro-magneto-mechanical interactions in the context of MRI scanner design, with three distinct novelties. First, the paper derives, from scratch, a five-dimensional parametrised offline solution process, expressed in terms of (axisymmetric) cylindrical coordinates, external excitation frequency, electrical conductivity of the embedded shields and strength of the static magnetic field. Second, by exploiting the staggered nature of the coupled problem at hand, an efficient sequential PGD algorithm is derived and compared against a previously published monolithic PGD algorithm. As a third novelty, the paper draws some interesting comparisons against an alternative tailor-made ROM technique, where the electromagnetic equations are solved using a Proper Orthogonal Decomposition model. A series of numerical examples are presented in order to illustrate, motivate and demonstrate the validity and potential of the considered approach, especially in terms of cost reduction.