IronPython-Based Automated Computational Platform for 3-D Finite Element Modeling and Electric/Magnetic Field Analysis of Overhead Transmission Lines

To address the low efficiency of finite element modeling and the reliance on manual measurements in electric/magnetic field analysis of complex overhead transmission line structures, this paper develops an IronPython-based automated computational platform within ANSYS Maxwell for 3-D modeling and electric/magnetic field analysis. First, by parsing transmission line data from the Grid Information Model (GIM), a unified coordinate transformation method is proposed to convert geographical coordinates into three-dimensional (3-D) Cartesian coordinates for finite element analysis. Based on the extracted line parameters, conductor sag is calculated and catenary modeling is implemented. An equivalent radius method is also introduced to simplify multi-bundle conductor modeling, enabling fast parametric construction of complex 3-D transmission line models. Second, by combining the IronPython scripting language with the .NET Windows Forms control library, a visualized finite element modeling and computation platform is developed. Finally, a typical double-circuit transmission line on the same tower is taken as a case study to calculate the spatial distribution of electric/magnetic fields. The influence of solution domain size on electric/magnetic field computation results is investigated, and optimal solution domain parameters are determined. The finite element results generated by the developed platform are further validated through comparison with measured data. The results demonstrate good agreement between calculated and measured values, confirming the accuracy and engineering applicability of the developed platform for electric/magnetic environment analysis of overhead transmission lines.