SMEKlib Quick Notes
SMEKlib (Lite) Documentation
Smeklab Ltd
Smeklab Ltd
www.smeklab.com
antti@smeklab.com
Document number: N/A
Date: 07 Dec 2020
Page: 1 of 5
Purpose of the document
This document contains minimal bullet-point style documentation to the free open-source Matlab library
SMEKlib.
For more theoretical background information, please check out the ICEM’18 paper ‘A High-Performance Open-
Source Finite Element Analysis Library for Magnetics in MATLAB’.
What is SMEKlib?
SMEKlib, named after the Finnish word for electromechanics SähköMEKaniikka, is an open-source Matlab library
primarily tailored for analysing and designing rotating electrical machines.
Originally, SMEKlib was developed in the Aalto University Research Group of Electromechanics, between 2013
and 2019. Since March 2019, it is primarily supported by SMEKlab Ltd, a boutique motor design company based in
Finland.
Who can use SMEKlib?
SMEKlib is published under a permissive open-source license called MIT license. It is free to use for both academic
and industrial work, as long as the license conditions are followed.
Many SMEKlib examples also use the open-source mesh generator gmsh. However, gmsh is a separate software
published under its own license. It is not coupled with SMEKlib or vice versa, and any SMEKlib user can opt to use
any other mesh generator of their choice.
Where to get support?
Primarily, please first check the examples under the repository. It is quite likely that whatever you need is already
hidden in there. Furthermore, do also check the (somewhat lagging) documentation of the main functions used in
the examples.
For small questions, you can reach out to antti@smeklab.com.
For more involved support or custom projects, please see section ‘Industrial use’.
Important bullet points
This section describes some important aspects related to the recommended way of performing electromagnetic
analysis on rotating electrical machines. However, it is not the only way – SMEKlib is a library rather than a design
software, after all. Furthermore, other types of analysis (like mechanical and thermal) are somewhat less mature
and require a more hands-on approach. Finally, rotating machines can also be analysed in ways other than
described here – it only requires more usage of lower-level matrix assembly functions and similar.
For the most complete, most recent example, see ‘Induction Motor (37 kW complete example)’ in the Examples
folder.
