Exhaustive optimization method based on DOE and FEM applied on a SMES device

In this paper, an exhaustive optimization method based on design of experiments (DOE) and finite element method (FEM) was applied on a Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) device with modular toroid coil in order to optimize its storage capacity. Two geometric parameters defining the torus shape were chosen to maximize the stored magnetic energy related to the volume of the superconducting material: the coil inner diameter ratio and the coil thickness ratio. The optimization algorithm is based on 2-D FEM numerical experiments in order to calculate polynomial models of second order of the objective function using full factorial design with three levels per factor. The result is the global maximum and it is compared with previous solutions.