IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 44, NO.

11, NOVEMBER 2008 4325

Optimal Design of an SPM Motor Using

Genetic Algorithms and Taguchi Method
Chang-Chou Hwang1 , Li-Yang Lyu1 , Cheng-Tsung Liu2 , and Ping-Lun Li1
Department of Electrical Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung 407, Taiwan
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 804, Taiwan

This paper presents the use of genetic algorithms (GAs) and the Taguchi method in optimizing an surface-mounted permanent magnet
(SPM) motor for use as a fan motor in air-conditioners. GAs were used to optimize the efficiency of the motor, and the Taguchi optimiza-
tion method was used and the finite-element method (FEM) analysis was conducted to compute the performance of the motor design
generated by the Taguchi design of experiments.
Index Terms—Cogging torque, efficiency, finite-element (FE) analysis, genetic algorithms (GAs), surface-mounted permanent magnet
(SPM) motor, Taguchi optimization method.

I. INTRODUCTION

NDUCTION motors have been widely used in air-condi-

I tioning system to drive compressors and fans [1]. However,
to satisfy the requirements of energy saving policy and higher
EER operation, permanent magnet synchronous motors have
become inevitable. Compared to induction motors, permanent
magnet synchronous motors have a better efficiency and better
power factor [2], [3].
Fig. 1. Initial design of SPM motor.
This paper presents an surface-mounted permanent magnet
(SPM) motor used as a fan motor in air-conditioning system.
In designing such a low horsepower rating motor, two factors
of interest are considered, one is the efficiency, and the other is
the cogging torque. Higher efficiency could provide higher EER
operation, and lower cogging torque results in lower acoustic
noise. High EER and low noise operation are the requirement
for motors used in air-conditioning system. These goals can be
accomplished using optimization techniques.
Among the developed optimization techniques, the genetic
algorithms (GAs) are used for the efficiency optimization of the
motor design due to their faster searching ability where the con- Fig. 2. One pole pitch of the motor.
straints and independent variables are given analytically with
an equivalent magnetic circuit [4]–[7]. However, the major con-
cern of this technique which based on the equivalent magnetic II. MODEL OF THE MOTOR
circuit would be a reduction in accuracy due to essential as- The initial design of the SPM motor is a three-phase, 20-W,
sumptions and the objective functions. It can not consider for 2000-r/min, four-pole, nine-slot, -connected SPM motor as
reducing the cogging torque by means of shaping the magnets shown in Fig. 1. The air gap length , stator outside radius
either [8]. The Taguchi method is not required to use sophis- , stack length , rotor core outside radius , and slot
ticated algorithms and additional programming aside from the opening are fixed at 0.5, 27.5, 47, 9.5, and 2 mm, respec-
finite-element method (FEM) of electromagnetic field analysis tively. The stator and rotor laminations are made of nonoriented
[9]. It also allows many settings of as many as necessary design silicon steel with saturated flux density of 1.5 T and four
parameters in optimization computation simultaneously. Hence, ferrite magnets with a remanence of 0.38 T and a relative
effects of several factors on cogging torque and efficiency can recoil permeability of 1.1 are mounted on the rotor surface.
be investigated. Finally, this paper uses the Taguchi parameter Fig. 2 gives the geometrical variables that intervene in the SPM
design in order to minimize the cogging torque and maximize design of the studied application.
motor efficiency [9], [10].
III. GENETIC ALGORITHMS
The procedure of any optimization is finding a vector
, representing a set of design variables, each
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2008.2001526 of them bounded by , , so that
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online the objective function is maximized (or minimized), and
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. a set of constraints , , is satisfied. In
0018-9464/$25.00 © 2008 IEEE
4326 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 44, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2008

this paper, GA optimization is applied to the design of an SPM TABLE I

motor to maximize the motor efficiency. COMPARISON RESULTS

A. Objective Function
The objective function is the motor efficiency and is defined
as

(1)
Considering the demagnetization curve of ferrite magnet as a
The motor output power is already known. The losses straight line in second quadrant with the relative recoil perme-
consist of copper losses in the windings, core ability , the air gap flux density can be obtained by
losses , and stray losses which can be represented
as a function of design parameters as (6)

Keeping the flux density through the tooth and stator back
(2) iron below , gives
where is the phase current (A), is the winding resistance,
(7)
is the stator core volume m , is the mass density of the
stator core kg/m , is the loss density of the core
at peak flux density , and is electrical frequency, is Another constraints are given as follows:
the rated torque (Nm), and is the rated speed (rad/s).
When operated at rated speed and output power, the copper (8)
losses, and stray losses of the motor may be assumed constant.
The resistance of the windings and the stator core volume can where and are the width and height of the slot.
be calculated as Finally, according to the geometry of the motor, the bounds
of the design variables can be expressed as
(3)

(9)
(4)
C. Results
where is the number turns in a slot, is resistance of the wire
(ohms/km), is the axial stack length of the motor. In this study, results are obtained with populations ,
crossover , mutation . The final results
B. Design Variables and Their Limits are reported in Table I. The efficiency and peak to peak values
of cogging torque of the initial and the GAs optimal design are
In the present study, five geometrical variables are defined as 76.21% and 6.79 mNm, 79.25% and 3.689 mNm, respectively.
design variables. That is, , , ,
, , where is the magnet length, is the
tooth width, is the back iron width, and , are the high IV. TAGUCHI’S METHODOLOGY
of the shoe as shown in Fig. 2. The remaining design parameters In Taguchi’s parameter design method, an orthogonal array
can be expressed in terms of above variables or assigned fixed that depends on the number of factors and levels included is
values. used to study the parameter space [9], [10]. The performance
The permeance coefficient defining the operating point of the motor in the matrix experiments are computed using the
is given by FEA software [12].

(5) A. Establish Orthogonal Array

There are four factors, A, B, C, and D, corresponding to
where is the flux concentration factor [11]. SPM motors al- four design variables which are chosen as shown in Fig. 2
ways have a weak and the typical values for are between and Table II, and each at three levels, where A is the ratio of
6 and 8 when using ferrite magnets [11]. We assume , angular magnet pitch to angular pole pitch, B is the position for
and 0.5 mm. From (5), the magnet length is in the range of cutting the magnet in millimeters, C is the angle for cutting the
. magnet in electrical degrees, and D is the distance from motor
Assume the rotor core outside radius is 9.5 mm, so that the center used as the center of a circle for magnet in millimeters.
rotor outer radius is , and the stator inner radius A standard Taguchi’s orthogonal array L-9 used for numerical
is . experiments is shown in Table III.
HWANG et al.: OPTIMAL DESIGN OF AN SPM MOTOR USING GENETIC ALGORITHMS AND TAGUCHI METHOD 4327

TABLE II TABLE VI
LEVEL OF DESIGN VARIABLE AVERAGE PEAK-TO-PEAK VALUE OF COGGING
TORQUE FOR ALL LEVELS OF ALL FACTORS

TABLE III
VALUES OF THREE SETTINGS OF THREE DESIGN PARAMETERS

TABLE IV
MOTOR PERFORMANCE

Fig. 3. Main factor effects on cogging torque.

TABLE VII
EFFICIENCY ALL LEVELS OF ALL FACTORS

T = peak to peak value of cogging torque.

= efficiency.

TABLE V
ANALYSIS OF MEANS

B. Conduct the Experiment

There are nine experiments required for us to determine the
optimum combination of the levels of these factors as shown in
Table III and to know the contribution of each to produce the
value of cogging torque. To obtain the values of cogging and
average torque for each case, 2-D FEM analysis is conducted
[13]. Table IV tabulates the motor performance indexes.
V. ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
After conducting the matrix experiments and obtaining all
the experimental data, analysis of means and analysis of vari-
ance are carried out for estimating the effect of design parame-
ters and for determining the relative importance of each design
parameter.
A. Analysis of Means
The means of all results can be calculated as
(10)
Table V tabulates the results.
B. Calculate Average Effect
The average peak to peak value of cogging torque of setting
factor A at level 3 are calculated as
(11)
Fig. 4. Main factor effects on efficiency.
where the factor is set to level 3 only in experiments 7–9.
The average peak to peak value of cogging torque for all levels
of factors can be obtained in a similar way. Table VI shows
the results. Fig. 3 illustrates the main factor effects on cogging
torque. It is seen that the factor-level combination (A3, B3, C3,
D3) contributes to minimization of cogging torque.
In a similar way, the efficiency can be obtained for all levels of
all factors. Table VII and Fig. 4 summarize the results. It is seen
that the factor-level combination (A1, B2, C1, D1) contributes
to maximization of the efficiency.
C. Analysis of Variance
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) provides a measure of con-
fidence. The technique does not directly analyze the data, but
rather determines the variance of the data. To conduct ANOVA,
the sum of squares (SS) is calculated first. It is a measure of the
deviation of the experimental data from the mean value of the
data. The sum of squares (SSFA) due to various factors can be
calculated as
(12)
4328
TABLE VIII
EFFECTS OF VARIOUS FACTORS ON MOTOR PERFORMANCE INDEXES
Fig. 5. Optimized cross section of the SPM motor.
TABLE IX
COMPARISON RESULTS
SSFB, SSFC, and SSFD can be obtained in the same way. These
results are summarized in Table VIII.
VI. DESIGN OPTIMIZATION
It is noted in Table VI and Fig. 3 that the best combination of
design parameters for minimum cogging torque is determined
to be (A3, B3, C2, D3). It is also noted in Table VII and Fig. 4
that the best combination of design parameters for maximum
efficiency is determined to be (A1, B1, C1, D1). There is no
element is selected to constitute the elements of the optimum
design for minimum cogging torque and maximum efficiency.
All factors are used to regulate the values of cogging torque
and efficiency. It is seen that in Table VIII factor A, the ratio
of angular magnet pitch to angular pole pitch, has larger effect
on efficiency to cogging torque. Factor B, the position for cut-
ting the magnet, factor C, the angle for cutting the magnet, and
factor D, the distance from motor center used as the center of a
circle for magnet, have largest on cogging torque to efficiency.
Therefore, the best combination of design parameters for min-
imum cogging torque and maximum efficiency is determined
to be (A1, B3, C3, D3). Fig. 5 shows the optimized cross sec-
tion of the SPM motor, and the final results are found using 2-D
FEM analysis again. Table IX compares the data of the motor
between initial, GA optimized, Taguchi’s parameter designs and
measurement. Fig. 6 compares the cogging torques. The peak to
peak values of cogging torque and efficiency of the initial and
the Taguchi’s design are 6.7846 and 0.943 mNm, 76.21% and
78.45%, respectively. It is seen that reduction of cogging torque
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 44, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2008
Fig. 6. Comparison of cogging torque.
results in a small reduction of efficiency from GAs’ to Taguchi’s
design due to the reduction of magnet volume.
VII. CONCLUSION
This paper applied the Taguchi methods to the design op-
timization for cogging torque minimization and efficiency
maximization of an SPM motor. It was shown that the tech-
nique presented in this paper is effective for obtaining the
design parameters having low levels of cogging torque and
high efficiency. The technique would link the existing FEM
packages to complete an iterative design loop.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the National Science Council of
Taiwan under Grant NSC 96-2221-E-035-105.
REFERENCES
[1] M. Reisinger, W. Amrhein, and S. Silber, “Single phase PWM con-
trolled voltage converter for pumps and fans without DC link elec-
trolytic capacitor,” in Proc. Conf. Rec. IEEE-PEDS, 2005, vol. 2, pp.
1211–1216.
[2] H. Murakami, Y. Honda, H. Kiriyama, S. Morimoto, and Y. Takeda,
“The performance of SPMSM, IPMSM and SynRM in use as air-con-
ditioning compressor,” in Proc. IEEE-IAS Annu. Meet., Oct. 1999, vol.
2, pp. 840–845.
[3] H. Murakami, H. Kataoka, Y. Honda, S. Morimoto, and Y. Takeda,
“Highly efficiency brushless motor design for an air-conditioner of the
next generation 42 V vehicle,” in Proc. IEEE-IAS Annu. Meet., Sep.
–Oct. 2001, vol. 1, pp. 461–466.
[4] N. Bianchi and S. Bolognani, “Design optimisation of electric motors
by genetic algorithms,” IEE Proc.- Electr. Power Appl., vol. 145, no.
5, pp. 475–483, Sep. 1998.
[5] K. S. Chai and C. Pollock, “Using genetic algorithms in design opti-
mization of the flux switching motor,” in Proc. Conf. Power Electron.,
Mach. Drives, Apr. 2002, pp. 540–545.
[6] N. Bianchi and A. Canova, “FEM analysis and optimisation design of
an IPM synchronous motor,” in Proc. Conf. Power Electron., Mach.
Drives, Apr. 2002, pp. 49–54.
[7] M. Lukaniszyn, M. JagieLa, and R. Wrobel, “Optimization of perma-
nent magnet shape for minimum cogging torque using a genetic algo-
rithm,” IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 1228–1231, Mar. 2004.
[8] A. Hamler and B. Hribernik, “Impact of shape pole of one phase brush-
less motor on cogging torque,” IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 32, no. 3, pp.
1545–1548, May 1996.
[9] S. X. Chen, T. S. Low, and B. Bruhl, “The robust design approach for
reducing cogging torque in permanent magnet motors,” IEEE Trans.
Magn., vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 2135–2137, Jul. 1998.
[10] R. K. Roy, Design of Experiments Using the Taguchi Approach. New
York: Wiley, 2001.
[11] T. J. E. Miller, Brushless Permanent-Magnet and Reluctance Motor
Drives. Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1989.
[12] “Flux2D User’s Guide,” ver. Version 10.1, Magsoft Corporation, Ball-
ston Spa, New York, 2007.
Manuscript received March 01, 2008. Current version published December
17, 2008. Corresponding author: C.-C. Hwang (e-mail: cchwang@fcu.edu.tw).