A polynomial chaos meta‐model for non‐linear stochastic magnet variations

Abstract

PurposeDue to the production process, arc segment magnets with radial magnetization for surface‐mounted permanent‐magnet synchronous machines (PMSM) can exhibit a deviation from the intended ideal, radial directed magnetization. In such cases, the resulting air gap field may show spatial variations in angle and absolute value of the flux‐density. For this purpose, this paper aims to create and evaluate a stochastic magnet model.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, a polynomial chaos meta‐model approach, extracted from a finite element model, is compared to a direct sampling approach. Both approaches are evaluated using Monte‐Carlo simulation for the calculation of the flux‐density above one sole magnet surface.FindingsThe used approach allows representing the flux‐density's variations in terms of the magnet's stochastic input variations, which is not possible with pure Monte‐Carlo simulation. Furthermore, the resulting polynomial‐chaos meta‐model can be used to accelerate the calculation of error probabilities for a given limit state function by a factor of ten.Research limitations/implicationsDue to epistemic uncertainty magnet variations are assumed to be purely Gaussian distributed.Originality/valueThe comparison of both approaches verifies the assumption that the polynomial chaos meta‐model of the magnets will be applicable for a complete machine simulation.