ROBUST TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION OF SYNCHRONOUS RELUCTANCE MOTORS USING CARDINAL BASIS FUNCTION BASED LEVEL SET METHOD

Synchronous reluctance motors (SynRMs) have gained considerable attention in the field of electric vehicles as they reduce the need for permanent magnets in the rotor, resulting in less material and manufacturing costs. However, their lower average torque and torque ripple vibrations have been identified as key issues that require resolution. In this study, we present a SynRM design framework employing the cardinal basis functions (CBF)based parametric level set method. The SynRms design problem is recast as a variational problem constrained by Maxwell's equations which describe the behavior of electric and magnetic fields in the SynRM. A continuum shape sensitivity analysis is carried out using the material derivative and adjoint method. A distance regularization energy function is employed to maintain the level set function as a signed distance function during the optimization. The parametric topology optimization problem is computationally solved using the Method of Moving Asymptotes (MMA). To demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, we present a numerical example that compares the torque characteristics of the optimal design with those of a reference design. Preliminary results show that the optimized SynRM has a 30.30% increase in average torque, along with a slight increase in torque ripple, compared to the reference model.