Tools for the robust design of low frequency electromagnetic devices

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The goal of the research and development project is the creation of effective tools for robust engineering design leading to the increased productivity of design engineers. The immediate application of these tools is to low frequency electromagnetic devices and systems, including power generators (hydro, wind, steam, etc.), electric motors (for hybrid vehicles, industrial machinery, domestic equipment, portable devices, computer systems, etc.), actuators (including MEMS devices), sensing systems and non-destructive testing techniques (such as is used in oil and gas pipelines; nuclear power stations and aircraft inspection). Enhanced design tools will improve the manufacturing yield of mass produced devices as well as making possible increases in the efficiencies of electromechanical energy conversion. The construction of appropriate design tools requires research in several areas of computational analysis including multi-objective optimization, multi-physics field solutions and performance evaluation. In addition, developments in soft computing (i.e. knowledge based systems) have the potential for accelerating numerical analysis techniques and providing a basis for device synthesis from design specifications. The merging of these areas will provide a novel and unique computer based design capability which will be based around the new hardware environment of multi-core processors and massive memories. Many of the intermediate objectives have applications outside the primary research area and will contribute to the development of tools for the support of engineering design in general.