Design by Optimization of Electromechanical Actuators - Methodology Issues

Designers have always sought to improve the performance of electromechanical actuators. In an increasingly competitive environment, the use of digital tools has become essential over the years, enabling us to limit or even avoid the costly (in time and money) phases of prototype manufacture and testing.

In this context, designers have developed two main approaches. The first is based on fairly general numerical models, which can be used more or less quickly to evaluate actuator performance on a computer, without the need for prototypes. As a result, these digital simulation tools have become essential in all design offices of companies interested in the design of electro-mechanical actuators. This remark can be applied more broadly to any scientific field involving design phases, such as mechanics, electronics, fluid studies, chemistry, etc. These digital simulation tools have become the basic tools of the design engineer, helping him or her to make design choices, right down to obtaining the precise structure and all dimensions of the actuator's ribs. The other approach consists of developing analytical models dedicated to certain very specific types of electromechanical actuators, such as permanent magnet electric machines.

For several decades now, numerous optimization methods and algorithms have been developed. As computers have become more and more powerful over the years, it has become essential to take an interest in the use of these optimization methods for the design of electromechanical actuators. In fact, as we'll see in chapter 1 , it's quite natural to formulate design problems defined by a specification as an optimization problem with constraints; for example, to minimize the volume of an electric machine that must deliver a certain torque, with limited ripple, a consequent efficiency, and whose winding temperature must not exceed a certain critical value.

In many laboratories, such as GREEN in Lille, LAPLACE in Grenoble or our respective laboratories, GREEN in Nancy and LAPLACE in Toulouse, optimization methods coupled with analytical or numerical models have been widely used to efficiently solve these electromechanical actuator design problems. These laboratories have often even developed their own optimization methods and codes: for example, the...