Proceedings of the 14th International Middle East Power Systems Conference (MEPCON10), Cairo University, Egypt, December 19-21,

2010, Paper ID 287.

Synchronous Motor Design using Particle Swarm

Optimization Technique
R. A. El-Sehiemy and M. I. Abd-Elwanis

A. B. kotb and M. Elwany

Department of Electrical Engineering

University of Kafrelsheikh
Kafrelsheikh, Egypt
{elsehiemy&mohamed.soliman4}@eng.kfs.edu.eg

Department of Electrical Engineering

University of Al-Azhar
Cairo , Egypt
elwany60@hotmail.com

Abstract- This paper investigates an optimization procedure for

the design of a synchronous motor (SM) using a particle swarm
optimization (PSO) procedure. The PSO is proposed to minimize
the motor volume and to maximize the motor output power. The
proposed procedure has two stages for motor design. In the first
stage, the stator parameters are optimized while in the second stage,
the field and damper winding are designed. The proposed algorithm
is efficiently compared with the practical experience-based method.
The proposed procedure is efficiently design the SM based on the 4pole proto-type synchronous machine which is produced at 27
military production factories. The proposed procedure leads to
more economical motor compared to the practical experience based
method. Also, the proposed procedure maximizes the SM developed
apparent power and reduces the field/damper windings in terms of
their conductors' diameters and number of conductor per slot.
Keywords: Particle swarm optimization technique, synchronous
motor (SM).

I.

INTRODUCTION

Synchronous motors are being increasingly used in different

industry sectors in new applications or as alternatives to
induction motors in current applications. This is due to their
many advantages including high efficiency, compactness,
fast dynamics and high torque to inertia ratio. Synchronous
motors with extra features of mechanical robustness,
capability of flux weakening and high speed operation are
particularly suitable as variable speed drives. The realization
of these merits depends greatly on motor configuration.
Therefore, a great deal of attention has been focused on the
optimal design of synchronous motors in recent years.
In the literature, different optimization procedures were
carried with different objectives, depending on the
prospective application of the motor and the users desire.
Comparative studies of minimization techniques for
optimization of ac machines design was presented with greet
progress in mathematical tools leads to use these
optimization tools for the electric machines design in
reference [1-10]. The optimization procedures are applied for
IM [1]. The practical consideration was presented for the IM
design in [2]. The SM optimal design using Immune
algorithm [3], genetic [4-6] finite element [7]. The optimized
design problem in [8] considered the torque capability and
low magnetic volume while in [9] a multi-objective optimal
design procedure for the interior permanent SM with
improved core formula was presented. A design optimization

795

is performed on interior type permanent magnet synchronous

motors to achieve high torque development capability with
low permanent magnet consumption. A multi-objective
optimization is performed in search for optimum magnet
dimensions and location. The design optimization results in a
motor structure superior to original motor specifications. For
many reasons, experience based design methods cannot find
optimal design solutions when dealing with nonlinear
systems. Also, these methods do not guarantee a global
solution for nonlinear systems; stochastic search algorithms
may provide a promising alternative to these traditional
approaches. An intelligent model parameter identification
method using particle swarm optimization (PSO). PSO is a
relatively new stochastic optimization technique developed in
the mid-1990s. The particle swarm optimization procedure
was presented in [10-11] for IM design in [10] and for the
parameter identification of the SM.
In past several years, PSO has been successfully applied in
many research and application areas [12]. It is demonstrated
that PSO gets better results in a faster, cheaper way
compared with other methods. Another reason that PSO is
attractive is that there are few parameters to adjust. One
version, with slight variations, works well in a wide variety
of applications. Particle swarm optimization has been used
for approaches that can be used across a wide range of
applications, as well as for specific applications focused on a
specific requirement.
In this paper, a multistage design procedure of a synchronous
motor is proposed. In the first stage, the stator parameters are
optimized using particle swarm optimization technique for
two objective functions. These objective functions are the
motor volume minimization and maximization of the
developed apparent power. After the SM stator parameters
are optimized, the rotor filed and damper are designed. Two
studied cases are considered and compared with the
experience based SM design method. The effect of the in fed
voltage of damper and field windings are considered for their
diameter and their number of conductors per slot.

II. RPOBLEM FORMULATION

A. Synchronous Motor Output Equation

large slot pitch. The slot pitch should be less than 25 mm

for low voltage machines. For salient pole machines, the
number of slots /pole/ phase is usually in the range 2-4.
c) Armature conductor constraint
The armature conductor size is dependent on the current
passes through it. The conductor current can be computed
from:
S (kV A ) 103
I z = I ph =
(6)
3E ph
If there is a set of parallel baths, the permissible current
density in the armature conductor is assumed to be with 3 -5
A/mm2. The cross-section area for armature conductors is
computed from: qs = I z / J mm2.
s
Where, J s = current density in armature conductors, A/mm2.

The output equation for synchronous machine can be

expressed in term of its main dimensions, specific magnetic
and electric loadings and speed; the equation describing this
relationship is known as output equation as:

S (kVA) = C D L n

Where,

= 11B

av

(1)

acK w 10

L=stator core length m,

Bav=magnetic loading,
ac=electric loading,
D: stator conductor diameter in mm.
and kw= winding factor.
The SM volume can be written as:
2
V(m) = D L

(2)

(3 )

The conductor diameter (dc) can be computed as:

d cs =

B. SM DESIGN AS AN OPTIMIZATION PROBLEM

The SM design problem can be expressed as an optimization
problem as:
Min f (x )
s .t . g (x ) = 0
(4)
h (x ) 0
Where, f(x) is the objective function, g(x), h(x) represent
the equality and inequality constraints, respectively and x is
the vector of the control variables of the SM. These control
variables are the stator diameter, length, flux density, the
ratio of pole length to pole pitch ( )

There are two suggested optimal based design procedures,

The first design procedure aimed at minimizing the motor
volume (Equation 3) while the second procedure aimed at
maximizing the apparent power at the air gap (Equations 1
and 2). Both objectives are achieved while the motor
constraints are considered.

AT

= 2.7

K T ph
w
A
I
ph
p

The Full load field mmf can calculated from:

AT f = 2 ATa

(8)

(9)

For a certain excitation voltage Vf, About 15 to 20 % of

this voltage is kept in reserve. Then, the voltage across each
field coil is:
(0.8 to 0.85)V
f
E =
(10)
f
p
The mean turn length of filed winding is obtained as :

2) SM design Constraints
a) Air gab length constraint
The length of air gap (lg) greatly influences the performance
of a synchronous machine. A large air gap offers a large
reluctance to the path of flux produced by the armature mmf
and thus reduces the effect of armature reaction. This leads
to a small value of synchronous reactance and high value of
SCR. The ratio of lg to pole pitch should satisfy the
following constraint:
l g p 0.02
(5)

Lmf = 2 L + 2.3

pr

+ 24cm

(11)

Where, =effective span of coils.

p
The voltage across each field coil is computed from:

b) Armature Slot constraint

D
=
) depends upon the voltage
s
s
of the machine. For high voltage machines which are
normally built in large capacities, it is desirable to use a

(7)

C. SM ROTOR DESGIN PROCEDURE

The rotor contains the damper and field windings. The design
of these windings is carried out as follows:
1) Filed winding
The rotor winding is distributed in slots. The pole pitch is so
chosen that undesirable harmonics are not produced in the
flux density wave. The width of rotor slots is limited by
stresses at the root of the teeth and by hoop stress in the end
retaining rings. Rotor current density may be about 2.5
A/mm2 for cooled machines. However, in modern direct
cooled generators the rotor current densities may be as high
as 9.5 to 14 A/mm2. Rotor winding design steps:
Computing the Armature mmf per pole as:

1) SM design Objectives

The slot pitch

2 qc

s (

796

= I
= I

T
I 2 = 0 .8 5 1 I 1
T2

f
L

mf
a

T
mf f
a
f
AT

The area of the rotor conductors is found out by assumes

suitable value for current density. The current density ( J )
2
in the rotor is chosen almost equal to that in the stator. Rotor
conductor area is computed from:

(12)

fl

a 2 = I 2 J 2 mm2.
The damper diameter of conductor is then computed from:

Where,
I = field current A,
f
T = number of turns in each field coil,
f
a = area of field conductors mm2, and
f
= resistively ohm /m
The area of field conductors can be calculated from:
a

mf
E

AT

fl

mm2

d = 2.0 a 2

III.

(13)

(14)

= ( 2 p A T f l ) (T f )
The number of field conductor is computed from:
Z

2 pA T

fl

(15)

J f af

And the number of field conductor per slot is computed by:

2 pA T
fl
Z =
(16)
s
J f af s r
2) Damper winding
The design of damper winding is dependent on the purpose
for which it is provided. In synchronous generator, it is
provided to suppress the negative sequence field and to damp
the oscillations when the machine starts hunting, while in a
synchronous motor its function is to provide starting torque
and to develop damping power when the machine starts
hunting. The rotor voltage on open circuit between slip rings
should not exceed 500 voltages for small machine.
The damper turns T2 is computed as follows:

T2 =

E 2 k 1
T ph
E1 k 2

(19)

PARTICLE SWARM OPTIMIZATION

TECHNIQUE

Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) was invented by

Kennedy and Eberhart in 1995 while attempting to simulate
the choreographed, graceful motion of swarms of birds as
part of a study investigating the notion of collective
intelligence in biological populations. Particle swarm
optimization (PSO) is a population based stochastic
optimization technique developed by Dr. Eberhart and Dr.
Kennedy in 1995 [12], inspired by social behavior of bird
flocking or fish schooling. PSO shares many similarities with
evolutionary computation techniques such as Genetic
Algorithms (GA). The system is initialized with a population
of random solutions and searches for optima by updating
generations. However, unlike GA, PSO has no evolution
operators such as crossover and mutation. In PSO, the
potential solutions, called particles, fly through the problem
space by following the current optimum particles.
In PSO, a set of randomly generated solutions (initial swarm)
propagates in the design space towards the optimal solution
over a number of iterations based on large amount of
information about the design space that is assimilated and
shared by all members of the swarm. Modification of the
swarm agent positions is realized by the position and
transition information. Each agent transition can be simulated
by two dimensional referred to the available information's
about self and group experiences.
A basic PSO version based on the collected information of
self and group experience according to the agents positions.
The basic PSO version was presented as [12, 13]:

af

mm

Where, J =current density in rotor conductors.

2
Round conductor are used for small motors. But for large
motor it becomes necessary to use bar conductors.

For the field current density Jf, the field winding

conductors area can be computed from the following
equation:

a tf = (2 A T f l ) E f 1
R f af

= (2 p A T f l ) (I f

(18)

best
x k = v .x k + c1r1 (xbest
k x k ) + c2 r2 (gxk x k )

x k +1 = x k + x k

(17)

(20)

Where,

Where, E1 is the stator voltage per phase and E2is rotor

voltage per phase at standstill. The rotor current per phase
( I 2 ) is computed from considering the full load rotor mmf is

xk
x

is the vector of control variables at iteration k.

best
k

is the vector of personal best of control variables at

iteration k.

about 85% of stator mmf as:

797

Case 1) Designs of the SM using the proposed MPSO

procedure based on minimize the motor volume.
Case 2) Design of the SM using MPSO method based on
maximizes the output power.
Table 1 shows the results obtained using the experience
based design procedure (case 0) compared to the other two
optimized cases for the tested motor. In this table, Cases 1
and 2 leads to more reduction in the motor volume with
reduction of 21.84 % compared with the case 0. Case 2
increases the output power compared to the other two cases.
Also, cases 1 and 2 leads to more reduction in the required
total ampere conductor (AC) with a reduction of 0.88%. The
field and damper parameters are varied according the
objective functions considered in the first stage of the design
based on PSO technique. For the first studied case (Case 1),
Figures 1and 2 show the variation of field winding diameter
and field conductor per slot versus the field voltage,
respectively. It is cleared that, the field winding diameters
increase linearly with the field voltage while, the field
winding conductor per slot decreases with the field voltage
increased. This means that: the higher field voltage leads to
decrease the field conductor per slot.
Figures 3- 4 show the variation of damper conductor per slot
and damper diameter versus damper voltage, respectively. It
is cleared that from these figures, the damper conductor per
slot increase linearly with the damper voltage while, the
damper winding conductor per slot decreases with the
damper voltage increased. This means that: the higher
damper voltage leads to decrease the damper diameter. For
the second studied case (Case 2), Figures 5 and 6 show the
variation of damper conductor per slot and damper diameter
versus the damper voltage for Case 2. It is cleared that, the
damper winding turns and conductor per slot increase
linearly with the damper voltage while, the damper winding
conductor per slot decreases with the damper voltage
increased. This means that: the higher damper voltage leads
to decrease the damper diameter The field winding diameter
increase linearly with the field voltage as shown in Figure 7
while, the field winding conductor per slot decreases with the
field voltage increased as shown in Figure 8. This means
that: the higher field voltage leads to decrease the field
conductor per slot.

gx kbest is the vector of global best of control variables at

iteration k.

x k +1 is the vector of control variables at iteration k+1.

The velocity is updated at iteration k for the control variables
using equation (21) as:
v k = v k m ax (v k m ax v k min ) k Iter m ax
(21)
The large number of inertia coefficient (v) leads to more
global solution. The learning coefficients c1 and c2 are the
factors which PSO technique optimizes different objective
functions on the basis of personal and group experiences and
each agent tries to modify its position the updating formula
(20).
The updating formula in (20) for agent position and transition
information is limited by the minimum and maximum
transition values as:
T kmin x k T kmax
(22)
Where the maximum and the minimum transition in (22) are
computed from:

T kmax = k m (x kmax x kmin ),

min
max
min
T k = k m (x k x k )

(23)

IV. PROPOSED SOLUTION METHODOLOGY

The PSO-based design procedure steps are:

1. Defining the motor limits and constraints and the PSO
algorithm coefficients (learning inertia).
2. Solving the stator side problem by solving the PSO-based
design problem to obtain the best stator design
considering two objectives namely, developed power
(apparent power) and the stator volume. For the motor
volume minimization, Equation 2 is considered as an
objective function with the stator constraints (Equations
5-7). For the developed apparent power maximization,
Equation 3 is considered as an objective function with the
stator constraints (Equations 5-7).
3. For each studied case, design the field/damper windings
are performed based on the optimal stator parameters in
the previous step.
4. Again, redesign the damper/field windings for different in
fed voltages based on the stator results obtained in step 2.
5. Performing a comparison with the experience based
design for the synchronous motor for varied range.

TABLE 1
A COMPARISON BETWEEN SM DESIGN RESULTS USING DIFFERENT
OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUES FOR THE TESTED MOTOR

V. NUMERICAL EXAMPLE

studied cases

Variables

Three studied cases are considered in this paper to design the

SM for a 4-pole proto-type synchronous machines which is
produced at 27 military production factory by modifying the
rotor of a 4-pole 380V, star connection, 50Hz, squirrel-cage
induction motor.
The modified SM starts as an IM and the continuous
operation will be synchronous. Three studied cases are
considered:
Case 0) Design of the SM using conventional method.

Control
variables
Rated power
Volume
Damper
winding

798

B (web/m2)
D (m)
AC
L (m)
S kVA
Vm3
Ts
E2 (V)
Tr

case 0

case 1

case 2

1.6
0.54
0.0885
26500
0.111
3.3
0.00087
246
202.312
255

1.54
0.85
0.08
26268
0.1
3.37
0.00068
184
101.04
84

1.54
0.845
0.081
26268
0.103
3.374
0.00068
184
144
121

0.94

1.1

0.918

Zs damper

56

10

Vf (V)

220

23.38

220

diameter mm
Zs
Zf

0.79
104
1256

0.756
209
2513

150
3604

damper conductor per slot

Field winding

diameter mm

0.04

15
10
5
0

50
100
150
200
damper voltage per phase (volt)

0.03
15

0.01
0

10

20
30
field voltage (volt)

40

50

Figure 1: Field winding diameter verses field voltage for Case 1

2.5

1.5
1

50
100
damper voltage per phase (volt)

150

Figure 5 Damper conductors per slot versus damper voltage for Case 2

0.5
0

50

100
150
200
field voltage (volt)

250

Figure 2: Field conductor per slot versus field voltage for Case 1

3
2.5

4
3
2
1
0

50
100
damper voltage per phase (volt)

150

2
Figure 6: Damper winding diameter versus field voltage for Case 2

1.5

0.05
field winding diameter

damper winding diameter

10

damper winding diameter

field conductor per slot

250

Figure 4 Damper conductors per slot versus damper voltage for Case 1

0.02

damper conductor per slot

field winding diameter

0.05

20

1
0.5

50
100
150
200
damper voltage per phase (volt)

250

Figure 3: Damper winding diameter versus damper voltage for Case 1

0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0

10

20
30
40
field voltage (volt)

50

Figure 7: Field winding diameter versus field voltage for Case 2

799

[8]

field conductor per slot

2.5
2

[9]

1.5

[10]

[11]

0.5

10

20
30
40
field voltage (volt)

50

[12]
[13]

Figure 8: Field conductors per slot versus field voltage for Case 2

VI. CONCLUSIONS
This paper has been efficiently solved the problem of
synchronous motor design using a particle swarm
optimization technique. The results obtained with the
designed procedure are compared with experience-based
method. The proposed PSO technique offers some
advantages over deterministic methods as:
1) Minimizing the motor volume from 870 cm3 using the
conventional method to 680 cm3 using the proposed
optimized design procedure.
2) Maximizing the apparent power compared to the
conventional design method.
3) The total ampere conductor using the proposed
optimization technique is saved by 0.88%.
4) The increased damper voltage leads to more reduction in
damper winding diameter. While, The increased field
voltage leads to more reduction in the field conductor
per slot.

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