Optimal Structure Design of Permanent Magnet Motors Based on a General Pattern of Rotor Topologies

For the purpose of saving energy resources, it is extremely expected to develop highly efficient electric motors. Different types of permanent magnet (PM) arrangement can significantly affect the performance of the motors. Conventionally, the arrangement of the PMs is determined by designer's experience. This paper focuses on the optimal design of PM arrangement in PM synchronous motors (PMSMs). We present a general pattern of the PM arrangement in PMSM. By varying the parameters of the general pattern, it can produce different types of PM arrangement in the rotor. The employed approach combines the global optimization method with the finite-element method for solving the optimization of the PM structures. Based on the proposed general pattern and optimization methods, the best PM arrangement in the motor can be automatically determined. In order to reduce computing loading, this paper employs the response surface models for reducing the computing time of objective functions. In the end, numerical tests are designed to showcase the effectiveness of the proposed method.