Novel Topology Optimization Method for Weight Reduction in Electrical Machines

This paper proposes a combined electromagnetic and mechanical topology optimization for weight reduction in electrical machines based on Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Evolutionary Structural Optimization (ESO). The devised method is an on- off-type algorithm with adaptative mesh in which low flu...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Borja Lizarribar, Borja Prieto, Miguel Martinez-Iturralde, Gurutz Artetxe
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2022-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9804701/
Description
Summary:This paper proposes a combined electromagnetic and mechanical topology optimization for weight reduction in electrical machines based on Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Evolutionary Structural Optimization (ESO). The devised method is an on- off-type algorithm with adaptative mesh in which low flux density and low Von Mises stress cells are removed successively from a first machine design. With this approach, the weight of the machine can be considerably reduced without compromising the electromagnetic performance of the machine, with a reduced computation time compared to other topology optimization methods. A case study involving a 1.2 MW low-speed, permanent magnet motor is analyzed under different conditions (algorithm parameters, initial mesh, rotational speed) and used to compare the proposed method with two other topology optimization approaches.
ISSN:2169-3536