Multimaterial Topology Optimization of Electric Machines Based on Normalized Gaussian Network

This paper presents a topology optimization method for multimaterial models based on the normalized Gaussian network. In this method, one can determine optimal shapes of machines that are composed of various materials, such as iron, magnetic, and non-magnetic material. The present method is applied to the optimization of the average torque for interior permanent magnet motor to determine the distributions of magnetic core and flux barrier as well as magnets. The optimization results show that average torque can be improved using as small amount of magnet as possible. In addition, the characteristic of the present method is discussed in detail.