Accelerating the Optimal Shape Design of Linear Machines by Transient Simulation Using Mesh Deformation and Mesh Connection Techniques

Abstract

The finite-element method is widely used in predicting performance parameters and, furthermore, finding the optimal design of linear machines by parameter sweeping analysis. Since there are usually thousands of sample points to be evaluated, where, for each sample point, a transient finite-element analysis having linearly moving parts is needed, it is a time-consuming process when finding the optimal design parameters. For traditional finite-element methods considering linear motion, either remeshing or overlapping composite mesh technique is needed at each time step, which, however, increases the computation burden. To accelerate the optimal design of linear motors using transient finite-element computation, a novel method based on a combination of mesh deformation and nonconforming mesh connection techniques is proposed in this paper. First, when the geometric design parameters are updated, a fast remesh-free mesh deformation method is used to deform the mesh. Then, in the transient finite-element solution process, a simple and robust mesh deformation method is used to update the mesh for each time step, and a mesh connection technique is adopted to make the solution continuous across the interface of stator and mover meshes. Numerical results are demonstrated to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.