Permanent magnet machines and drives-an integrated design approach

Design is an interactive iterative process, the main factors influencing the design of a drive system being the application, the cost, and the choice of materials. These are interdependent, and only by considering their interactive effects can an economic optimum solution be obtained. In other words a simultaneous engineering approach must be applied whereby the complete system is considered, with its design, the materials, and the manufacturing process being optimised concurrently. The paper describes a CAD system which has been developed with the above philosophy in mind, and which caters for the design of alternative topologies of brushless permanent magnet motors and actuators as well as the systems by which they are controlled. In order to illustrate the importance of an integrated design approach its application to three typical design problems is described