Application of Particle Swarm Optimization Technique to Alternator Design

This paper presents a new methodology for alternator design using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method to minimize the material cost and regulation and to maximize the efficiency. The design problem of an alternator is considered a nonlinear, multivariable constrained optimization problem. In this context, the design is optimized using three different objective functions - cost, regulation and efficiency. The design procedure consists of a system of nonlinear equations, which defines alternator characteristics, performance, magnetic stresses and thermal limits. This procedure employs PSO technique to search for optimal values of machine variable without constraint violation. To verify the consistency, the proposed method has been applied to two sample alternators and the results are compared with that of Hooke-Jeeves (HJ) method. Computational results show the effectiveness of the proposed design