Purpose -To establish a statistical formulation of robust design optimization and to develop a fast optimization algorithm for the solution of the statistical design problem. Design/methodology/approach -Existing formulations and methods for statistical robust design are reviewed and compared. A consistent problem formulation in terms of statistical parameters of the involved variables is introduced. A novel algorithm for statistical optimization is developed. It is based on the unscented transformation, a fast method for the propagation of random variables through nonlinear functions. The prediction performance of the unscented transformation is demonstrated and compared with other methods by means of an analytical test function. The validity of the proposed approach is shown through the design of the superconducting magnetic energy storage device of the TEAM workshop problem 22. Findings -Provides a consistent formulation of statistical robust design optimization and an efficient and accurate method for the solution of practical problems. Originality/value -The proposed approach can be applied to all kinds of design problems and allows to account for the inevitable effects of tolerances and parameter variations occuring in practical realizations of designed devices.
An efficient finite element method to take account of the nonlinearity of the magnetic materials when analyzing three dimensional eddy current problems is presented in this paper. The problem is formulated in terms of vector and scalar potentials approximated by edge and node based finite element basis functions. The application of Galerkin techniques leads to a large, nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations in the time domain. The excitations are assumed to be time-periodic and the steady state periodic solution is of interest only. This is represented in the frequency domain as a Fourier series for each finite element degree of freedom and a finite number of harmonics is to be determined, i.e. a harmonic balance method is applied. Due to the nonlinearity, all harmonics are coupled to each other, so the size of the equation system is the number of harmonics times the number of degrees of freedom. The harmonics would be decoupled if the problem were linear, therefore, a special nonlinear iteration technique, the fixed-point method is used to linearize the equations by selecting a timeindependent permeability distribution, the so called fixed-point permeability in each nonlinear iteration step. This leads to uncoupled harmonics within these steps resulting in two advantages. One is that each harmonic is obtained by solving a system of algebraic equations with only as many unknowns as there are finite element degrees of freedom. A second benefit is that these systems are independent of each other and can be solved in parallel. The appropriate selection of the fixed point permeability accelerates the convergence of the nonlinear iteration. The method is applied to the analysis of a large power transformer. The solution of the electromagnetic field allows the computation of various losses like eddy current losses in the massive conducting parts (tank, clamping plates, tie bars, etc.) as well as the specific losses in the laminated parts (core, tank shielding, etc.). The effect of the presence of higher harmonics on these losses is investigated.
Nowadays, there are strong movements towards development and usage of multimedia courseware as a means of knowledge transfer. Many authors of textbooks or lecture notes are now striving to redesign the supporting material for their major courses in a structured, highly efficient way, including interactive content and media. Thus, in order to avoid unnecessary work load resulting from updating and publishing various courseware versions, tools for improving document creation and conversion have been developed and are now being applied for the first time on a new “Electrodynamics”‐‐ courseware.
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