The knowledge which can be acquired from micromagnetic simulation reveals the underlying physical processes that govern the hysteresis loop. This complements experimental work in which the average magnetisation as usually shown in hysteresis loops is observed.
The ability to examine numerically the micromagnetic behaviour of a given ferromagnetic system is of particular interest to experimentalists because it allows us to investigate in great detail the microstructures of the magnetisation which form inside the system and observe their effects.
We wish to understand the micromagnetic behaviour of the droplets later presented in chapter 5 which our collaborators in Prof. Bartlett's group can fabricate and our collaborators in Prof. de Groot's group investigate experimentally. In this chapter we study some more fundamental geometries to prepare this investigation.