Fast optimization of the Magnetic Model by means of
Relucance Network for PMa-SynRM
C. López Torres, T. Michalski, A. Garcia Espinosa, L. Romeral
MCIA Research Group (UPC)
Terrassa, Spain
carlos.lopez@mcia.upc.edu
Abstract—This paper proposes a methodology for optimal
design of Permanent Magnet assisted Synchronous Reluctance
Motor. The magnetic model is explained because the
particularities associated to high magnetic saturation regions
this motor has, which lead to difficulties in inductance
calculation. Hence, the finite element analysis is currently used
to design and optimize Permanent Magnet assisted
Synchronous Reluctance Motor, from the first. This method
requires a high amount of computational time and resources.
For this reason, the magnetic model explained in this paper is a
good alternative to introduce on optimal design process. The
magnetic model proposed is based on reluctance network and
takes into account the magnet effects and the possibility of
structural ribs on motor design.
Keywords—design, electric motors, electromagnetic analysis,
magnetic analysis, optimal design, permanent magnet
synchronous reluctance motors
I. INTRODUCTION
For automotive electrical traction motors applications, so
far, the considered topologies have been the IM and PMSM.
The latter have been deeply studied due to its higher torque
density, constant power speed range, and efficiency, i.e. it is
spread in all over the car manufactures. But there is a
problem, the price of the rare-earth magnets, which although
in the last years has decreased; it still suffers of high
volatility. In this context arises the concept of the rare-earth-
less motors where the used amount of rare-earth based
magnets have been reduced and rare-earth based magnets
have been replaced by ferrite based magnets. Around the
latter concept the ferrite Permanent Magnet assisted
Synchronous Reluctance Machines becomes increasingly
important since they have the advantage among the
mentioned types to combine the low production cost of
induction motors with a performance comparable to PMSM
[1]. Besides, the magnetic properties of the ferrites are not so
temperature dependent as Neodymium is.
On the other hand its design is a very complex process
[2, 3] because of its high magnetic saturation, resulting in a
very dependent on FEA computation [4], since effects of the
rotor saturation on the machine performance have not been
properly studied [5] and there is still no analytical method to
accurately predict the performance of the machine due to
non-linearity created by local saturation [6]. Others effects
such as the interaction between the spatial harmonics of
electrical loading and the rotor anisotropy, causes torque
ripple, [7], whose mitigation or suppression is currently
978-1-5090-3474-1/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
under investigation, since it is an undesirable effect
depending upon the application [8]. There are several design
approaches in order to address this problem, which present a
suitable number combination of flux barriers and stator slots
[4, 9], or designing the flux barriers in such a way that the
outer edges do not correspond to the position of stator teeth
[10]. Nowadays the reluctance networks appear as a strong
candidate tool to cope with electromagnetic motor design,
due to its advantages in terms of computation burden [11,
12] and accuracy.
In this framework is necessary a fast and computationally
efficient tool able to deal with the electromagnetic design of
this machine taking into account thermal behavior. Its output
is almost the final electromagnetic design, minimizing the
intensive use of FEA, which is used only for fine tuning of
some parameters. By extension this tool can be used for an
optimized process design to evaluate different motor
configuration candidates. In these tasks the use of FEA
would result in a cumbersome task, due to the number of
parameters to vary resulting in a big amount of simulations
to perform.
The methodology presented not only considers an
electromagnetic network but a coupled thermal network as
well. By this way the magnetic saturation is evaluated while
thermal effects and limits on electrical parameters are taken
into account, hence increasing the accuracy of the model,
especially in high current situations. These motor studies
allow optimizing the motor on range, i.e. operational
boundaries or behavior maps can be used on the cost
function evaluation.
The paper presented is organized as follows. Section II
presents the optimization process. Section III discusses the
main motor parameters to be optimized. Section IV presents
the magnetic model used on optimization process. Section V
presents results and discussions. Finally, Section VI
concludes the paper with comments and conclusions.
II. OPTIMIZATION PROCESS
Optimization is the process where a model is adjusted to
some desired parameters while undesired properties are
minimized. Thus general analytical design techniques cannot
take into account each particular design case. However, the
analytical equation can still be used to obtain a pre-design
that is the first step on optimal process. To start the
optimization process the pre-design is needed, so the first
approach of the final design is carried out using analytic
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equation and taking into account electrical restriction, such paper proposes a faster method to obtain the motor magnetic
as Bus DC, phase current or number of phases, geometrical behavior with low error. In section IV the magnetic model
constrains and motor performances desired [13]. Before calculation is detailed.
calculating the motor dimensions, the motor parameters have Optimal process
to be classified on variables or fixed parameters regarding
design. For specific application some parameters have to be Number of poles, slots and barriers
Stack lenght Classification the
parameters on:
fixed, for example, outer motor size or number of poles. Initialization
Rotor and Stator diammeters
Initial stator size - fixed
Initial rotor size - variables

Later on motor design, a genetic algorithm will take the Geoemtry

Creation the parameters and the
initial values for GA
information of the motor pre-design and operates on the list parametrization Creation the reluctance network
Creation the thermal network
of variables for optimizing. In addition, taking into account
the performances desired and motor application, the target of GA initialization
optimization can be defined. The cost function depends on
the application and target defined; therefore it will depends Inductances calculation
on torque, power, power density, base speed, average
Magnetic
evaluation Motor magnetic saturation
Magnet flux linkage calculation
efficiency, losses minimization, among others.
Thermal
Finally the motor obtained is validated using Finite evaluation

Element Analysis software, such as Flux (Cedrat, v1). Fig. 1

shows a reduced scheme of this process. YES Thermal
limits?

Number of poles, slots and barriers NO

Electrical restriction 1. Motor Stack lenght
Different motor performances
Performances desired Rotor and Stator diammeters Electric
- efficiency map
Geometrical constrains Pre-Design Initial stator size evaluation - operational boundaries
Initial rotor size

Cost function
calculation

2. Optimal NO
Optimal Motor design Stop
process criterion?

YES

Optimal motor
design obtained

3. FEA
validation Fig. 2. Optimal process detailed diagram

Fig. 1. Motor desing process B. Thermal model

To the thermal part, the different losses are required. The
The optimization process consists on applying a genetic
iron losses are calculated by Bertotti approach [14] need the
algorithm (GA) to select the best motor parameters
combination to obtain the electro-magnetic and thermal magnetic saturation obtained in magnetic model. In addition
behavior. A parametric model of the motor is used for the motor geometry parametrization is needed to define the
calculus, so the motor performances can be obtained with thermal resistances.
high accuracy and low time consuming due to avoiding FEA The first step for obtain the motor temperatures is the
in the optimal design process. Fig. 2 shows the optimization creation of thermal network [15]. Fig 3 shows the thermal
process. network used.
The optimal process could require different motor
behaviors’ evaluation to obtain the motor performances
needed to evaluate the combined cost function. However, in
this paper only magnetic evaluation is shown with detail
because the magnetic model proposed reduces considerably
the computing time required regarding high accuracy.
A. Magnetic model
Obtaining magnetic model is the most important step on
the optimal process. The magnetic motor behavior gives the
necessary information to calculate the magnet flux linkage,
the motor inductances or the motor magnetic saturation. The
following steps need this information to calculate the
magnetic losses (thermal model) or the motor performances
(electric model). As mentioned before, the high magnetic
saturation makes hardly solve the magnetic model, so
frequently this behavior is calculated by FEA. However, this
Fig. 3. Thermal netowrk

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 In fig. 4 a thermal node can be observed, the thermal
system is given by the different nodes.
Fig. 4. Thermal node
complex reluctance networks to evaluate tooth tip, tooth-
yoke connection and slot leakage.
C. Rotor geometry
The rotor geometry consists on the size and the position
of different flux barriers. In addition, the magnets locations
and size of them are optimized in this part. Finally, the best
option to introduce the structural ribs on flux barriers is
found. Fig. 6 shows the parameters of flux barriers.

Where; In addition, the inner and outer rotor diameter, air gap
“θh,i,j ” is the temperature to node “h,i,j” length and magnet size are parameters to optimize in this
part.
“Pi ” is the power (losses or coolant) in the node “i”
“R ij,ih ” is the thermal resistance between nodes “ij,ih” αouter
wr
“Pij ” is the heat flow between nodes “ij” αinner

Then, an iterative method to solve the thermal system

formed by all nodes using the equation 1 is proposed, Structural
Magnet
position
Wtop
because joule losses and convection resistances are both wm ribs location

function of temperature. Om
hb
𝑇𝑖 − 𝑇𝑗 𝑇𝑖 − 𝑇ℎ wm
𝑃𝑖 = + (1) Ob
𝑅𝑖𝑗 𝑅𝑖ℎ Wbot
Or

III. PARAMETERS TO OPTIMIZE

The optimization process will try to evaluate the better
option using all the possibilities, i.e. all the motor parameters
that have defined as variables, without considering the
parameters fixed by the application.
Fig. 6. Rotor parameters to optimize
A. General geometry
The general geometry is related with the number of In future work the rotor geometry could include the
poles, slots and flux barriers on PMa-SynRM. This kind of mechanical part, because it is not considered on the current
variables frequently is chosen by designer and this election optimization process, so the radial ribs are over dimensioned
affects to the other motor parameters. For an optimal design to guaranty the mechanical integrity.
the optimization process considers different combinations of D. List of parameters
these three variables.
Table I summarizes all the parameters considered in the
B. Stator geometry GA.
The parameters of the stator geometry are formed by the
TABLE I. GA PARAMETERS
tooth and yoke size and the number of turns per phase. Fig. 5
shows the parameters to optimize. Parameters Variable Parameters Variable
Number of pole
p Weight bot barrier Wbot
hy pairs
Number of slots Qs Barrier height hb
Number of flus
k Yoke height hy
barriers
bt Number of turns Outer angle
ht Nph 𝛼outer
per phase barrier
Tooth height ht Inner angle barrier 𝛼inner
Tip height htip Outer rotor diam. Dor
htip
Yoke height hy Air gap g
btip
Tooth weight bt Magnet size Wm
Fig. 5. Stators parameters to optimize Tip weight btip Radial rib size Wr
Weight top
The current stator geometry uses constant width tooth. barrier
Wtop Origin Ox
Future iterations foresee other tooth structures with more

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 As noticed, the high number of variables to optimize
increases the possibilities and the required GA time running.
Therefore, the range variable allowed must be small. In a
practical design, it means, that the pre-design geometry
results has to be well defined.
IV. MAGNETIC MODEL
Magnetic model is based on reluctance network, RN,
which gives the information necessary to calculate the
inductances and the magnet flux linkage.
Inductances can be defined as flux-linkage per current
[16]. Applying that definition to an electrical motor the
inductances are calculated by dividing the magnetic flux
through a coil by the current.
Taking into account the inductance definition, the current
in steady state previously chosen and the reluctance network;
the inductance calculation is obtained by the division of total
magnetic flux created by the coil which cross the coil of a
phase. Symmetries in flux path can help to simplify the
model and by extension the number of reluctances and paths
required to obtain inductance. Firstly, the RN can be
simplifying to one magnetic semi-pole. Then, the inductance
calculated provides of one semi-pole, so the final result have
to be multiply by two to obtain the total pole inductance and
by total number of poles to obtain the final inductance.
The magnet on PMa-SynRM is positioned on negative q-
axis to compensate the quadrature flux and increase the
motor performances. Hence the effect of magnet appears on
quadrature inductance.
On the one hand, there is the direct axis called d-axis,
which represents the position where there is the maximum
magnetic flux. Hence, the d-inductances can be calculated
with the RN used on this axis. Fig. 7 shows the RN for d-
axis.
Fig. 7. d-axis reluctance network Fig. 8. q-axis reluctance network
The total direct axis inductance is given by;
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(𝜙1 + 𝜙2 + 𝜙3 )
𝐿𝑑 = 2 · 2𝑝𝑁 (2)
𝐼
Where;
“𝑁” is the number of conductor on one slot
“𝑝” is the pole pairs
“𝐼” is the current which represent the peak phase current.
“𝜙1,2,3 ” the flux that through the coil of phase A
On the other hand, the quadrature axis is the axis the
position with less magnetic flux. Fig. 8 shows the RN
necessary to calculate the q-inductance.
In the q-axis position there is the particularity of the
magnet flux through the phase A coil, so the total inductance
calculation is given by;
2 · 2𝑝𝑁(𝜙2 + 𝜙3 + 𝜙4 ) − 𝜙𝑚
𝐿𝑞 = (3)
𝐼
Where “𝜙𝑚 ” is the linkage flux of magnet. The magnet
flux linkage is obtained with zero current, and is given by the
total magnetic flux multiply per total number of turns of one
phase.
There are three parameters on reluctance network, the
magnetic flux, reluctance and magneto motive force.
A. Reluctance
The reluctance is determinate by the permeability and
arrangement of the material in the magnetic circuit. In this
case reluctance elements are discretized by parallelepiped
elements. For reluctance elements in air, permeability is
constant. For reluctance elements in magnetic steel,
permeability is function of the material and flux density.
Therefore, the reluctance is given by;
𝑙
ℜ= (4)
𝜇𝑆
Where;
“𝑙” is the length in flux direction [m]
“𝑆” is the surface normal to flux direction [mm2]
“𝜇” is the absolute permeability: 𝜇 = 𝜇𝑜 𝜇𝑟
“𝜇𝑟 ” is the material relative permeability [-]
“𝜇0 ” is the void permeability [H/m]
Magnetic steels do not have constant permeability,
especially under high density flux situations. This effect is
generally neglected in machines where those magnetic flux
densities are rarely reached both in time and space. In PMa-
SynRM saturation occurs constantly. If saturation is to be
taken into account this must be translated into non-linear
reluctances representing iron parts. And therefore a non-
linear reluctance network and equation system is generated.
Therefore, this paper proposes an iterative system to solve
the reluctance network.
B. Magneto motive force 4- If the magnetic flux found is different to seed values,
The magneto motive force (Fmm) is given by the current return to steep 2 with new magnetic flux as seed value. If
and the magnets. On the one hand, to evaluate the both values are equal, finish.
inductances the steady state condition chosen are; Fig. 9 shows the iterative system to solve the magnetic
𝐼𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝐼𝑚𝑎𝑥 model.
𝑖𝑎 = 𝐼𝑚𝑎𝑥 ; 𝑖𝑏 = − ; 𝑖𝑐 = −
2 2 Current
I [A]
Where the equation 5 is satisfied;
𝑖𝑎 + 𝑖𝑏 + 𝑖𝑐 = 0 (5) Equation
system defined
The Fmm is given by equation 6, so it is obtained taking
K=1
into account the coil position (go-return slots) and the current Change
current
values. Hence, the total force is the sum of the all phases. Seed value
φk=a
𝐹𝑚𝑚 = 𝑁𝐼 (6)
In Fig. 7 and 8 there are the total Fmm on each tooth. As
shown, the Fmm on each tooth are different in q and d axes. Reluctance
calculation
φnew = φk
On the other hand, the Fmm given by the magnets are
given by; K=K+1 Solve equation
system
𝐹𝑚𝑚 = 𝐻𝑐 𝑙𝑚 (7)
NO
Where; |φk - φnew|
<e
“𝐻𝑐 ” is the coercivity force [A/m] NO
YES
“𝑙𝑚 ” is magnet height [m] Inductances
Calculation
C. Magnetic flux
The unknown variables of the system are the different
magnetic fluxes on dq-axes. The different magnetic fluxes Finish?

are calculated solving an iterative system of equation formed

by equations 8 and 9.
̅̅̅̅̅̅
𝐹𝑚𝑚 = ℜ̿ · 𝜙̅
And, the sum of magnetic circuit on a node;
∑𝜙 = 0
In fig. 7, there is one net (red-path) to make an example
of eq. 8.
𝐹𝑚𝑚1 = −2𝑁𝐼 = 𝜙1 (ℜ1−2 + ℜ1−5 + ℜ5−6 ) +
𝜙4 ℜ6−7 + 𝜙5 ℜ7−8 + 𝜙6 ℜ8−9 + 𝜙7 ℜ9−10 +
𝜙8 ℜ10−11 + 𝜙9 ℜ3−4 + 𝜙10 ℜ2−3 + 𝐻𝑐 ℎ𝑚1
In fig. 8, there is one node (black-point) to make an
example of eq. 9.
𝜙1 − 𝜙2 − 𝜙5 = 0
Hence, the equation system is formed with twenty-seven
equations for direct axis and forty-four equations for
quadrature axis. Finally, when the two equations systems
(dq) are formed the method to solve is;
1- Introduce a seed value of magnetic fluxes
2- Calculate the reluctances with the seed values
3- Solve the system and calculate the new magnetics flux
YES
Curve Inductance
vs Current
(8)
Fig. 9. Iterative methodology
V. RESULTS AND VALIDATION
(9) The aim of this paper is to show how an optimal motor
design can be obtained taking into account the shape
saturation in a reasonable computing time but with high
accuracy. Hence, in this section the magnetic results obtained
by the developed method are shown and compared with
FEA.
(10)
The time required to solve the magnetic model with the
described method is 42 seconds in a computer Xeon E5-1620
with 32 GB RAM, the code proposed uses all four cores of
the processor. This is possible because each current value is
independent of the others. The time required to obtain the
(11) optimal solution is the sum of different steps to obtain the
cost function multiply for the number of GA’s iterations.
The error obtained is less than 3%), which is good enough to
use these parameters on motor design.
The cases studied are motor with six poles pairs with two
slots per pole and phase. Using magnetic symmetry, one pole
of motor is analyzed on FEA. The motor validation is
performed with FEA, so the motor studied is analyzed on
Flux 2D (Cedrat, v12.1). The time required to obtain the
inductances on flux is around 300 seconds, so the time is

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 reduced 86%. Hence, the optimal process using FEA will
consume more computing time than the proposed model.
The accuracy of the model is shown on Fig. 10 where the
d and q inductances obtained with the RN and Flux is
compared. The average error on d-axis inductance is 3.06%,
the maximum error on d-axis is 7.11% and the average error
on q-axis is 2.57% and the maximum error 5.59%. In
addition, the error on flux magnet calculation is 0.95%.
Fig. 10. dq-axes inductance comparison
VI. CONCLUSIONS
This paper presents a multi-physics methodology to
optimize Permanent Magnet Assisted Synchronous
Reluctance Motors without FEA requirement. Furthermore,
the magnetic model is presented with detail and the results of
the model are compared with FEA.
The magnetic model proposed based on reluctance
network is a combination of high accuracy and low
computation time required, so it can be introduced on
optimization method (GA). As mention, the Reluctance
Network gives the motor inductances with very low error but
strongly reducing the computing time required. In addition,
the magnet and radial ribs are considered on magnetic
model, so the real motor behavior is calculated in design
step.
Finally, the model proposed results is a good solution to
obtain a fast and optimal motor design taking into account
magnetic, thermal and electric motor behavior.
In future work, the mechanical evaluation must be
considered in order to improve the final motor results. In
addition, the process automatization has to be improved
because current method only allows optimize motor with
three and five phases, enter number of slots per pole and
phase and three, four and five flux barriers.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry
of Economy and Competitiveness under the TRA2013-
46757-R research project.
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