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 Chapter 1

Introductory Chapter: Introduction to the Design and

the Control of Electrical Machines

Abdel Ghani Aissaoui

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.78772

1. Introduction

In the last century, electrical machines have been the subject of a huge development. New
concepts in design and control allow expanding their applications in diferent ields. They
are considered important components in many industrial applications as: power systems,
manufactories, power plants, electrical vehicles, and home appliances.
There are several types of electrical machines; we can ind synchronous machines, induction
machines, direct current (DC) machines, reluctance synchronous machines, transformers, etc.
(Figure 1).
The electrical machines are incorporated into the process of energy conversion in the genera-
tion, transmission, and consumption of electric power. In a power station, turbine generator
converts the energy coming from the combustion of coal, natural gas, etc. into electric energy

Figure 1. Diferent types of electrical machines.

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative
Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
4 Optimization and Control of Electrical Machines

that is transmited to consumers: motors whose mechanical energy drive machines in indus-
try, homes, traics, etc.
Most applications are interested in rotating electrical machines. The rotating electrical machine
can operate, without constructional changes, as a motor or generator, since the energy direc-
tion of an electrical machine is reversible (Figure 2).

Electrical machines can be classiied according to the torque producing mechanism and their
magnetic interactions. The irst class based on the torque producing mechanism machines is
classiied into two types, one is alignment torque producing machines such as DC machines,
induction, and synchronous machines and the second is the reluctance torque producing
machine, for example, switched reluctance machines. The second class based on the mag-
netic interactions machines is classiied as inductive-interactive type machines, for example,
induction machines, synchronous machines, and DC machines, and variable reluctance type
machines, for example, switched reluctance machines [1].
The electrical drive systems were developed based on the use of electrical machines. The
majority of all drive systems are electrical drives with growing tendency. Electrical drive
systems do not have a power density as high as pneumatic or hydraulic systems. Electrical
motors are bulky and heavy in comparison to these competitors.

Electrical drives are considered for three reasons superior to other drive systems, such as
pneumatic and hydraulic systems:

• Cleanliness of the energy supply

• Dynamics of control

• High eiciency of electromechanical power conversion

Figure 2. Conversion energy in electrical machines.

 Introductory Chapter: Introduction to the Design and the Control of Electrical Machines 5
http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.78772

The main part of these systems is electrical rotating machine. With the advent of power elec-
tronics, new possibilities appear for electrical machines with variable speed. Their technical
performance and economical design opened a new philosophy of drive applications.
The control of electrical power today is possible within short time for megawats. It can be
controlled so fast than any other form of energy.
The energy conversion between electrical and mechanical power is performed by the electri-
cal machine in both directions.

Electrical machines can be used for diferent ranges of speed. It can be used as motor particu-
larly in traction, electrical vehicles, etc. or as generators in power station, wind turbines, etc.

2. Design

The electrical machines are usually manufactured through mass-production techniques; their
performances can be afected by manufacturing processes and diferent operational condi-
tions (e.g., temperature). As a requirement of quality control, a robust design process is often
applied to minimize the inluence of uncertainties on the machine performance.

However, the conventional computer simulation cannot relect the inluences of the environmen-
tal uncertainties directly. The input data of the numerical model are usually the geometries of the
modeled device, the material properties, and the uncertainties in both must be taken into account.
While most of the works in the robust design of electromagnetic devices focus on the uncertain-
ties in the geometries [2–4], only a few eforts have been conducted on the inluences of the mate-
rial uncertainties. In electromagnetic ield computing, the nonlinear behavior of the constitutive
laws of ferromagnetic materials is usually obtained by B-H curves. For ferromagnetic materials,
[5] constructed a stochastic material model using the uncertainties of the measured points to
characterize a nonlinear B-H curve. In [6], a global sensitivity analysis was applied to study the
variance of the predicted behavior of a turbo-alternator with respect to material uncertainties.

All the above stochastic material models have formed a solid foundation for the study of
material uncertainties in the electromagnetic design. A robust design system can then be
implemented for the analysis and design of electrical machines in order to minimize the
efects of manufacturing errors in both iron and permanent magnets [7].

There are some general design methods, which can be applied in terms of diferent disci-
plines/domains: electromagnetic design, thermal design, structural design, multi-physics
design, material design, and manufacturing process design.

Electromagnetic design: The principle of operation of electrical machines is based on the elec-
tromagnetic theory. Electromagnetic design is based on the calculation of magnetic ield and
its distribution in the electrical machines, which allowed to compute some basic electromag-
netic parameters including winding inductance and the evaluation of some performances,
such as electromagnetic force, power loss, and eiciency. To obtain the magnetic ield, there
6 Optimization and Control of Electrical Machines

are three main kinds of analysis methods, analytical method, magnetic circuit method, and
inite element method (FEM) [8–10, 14, 15]. Meanwhile, power losses and eiciency are two
important performance indexes for electrical machines.
Thermal design and structural design: these methods can be applied after the accomplish-
ment of the electromagnetic design. The thermal design method aim is to compute the tem-
perature distribution in the machine based on the heat obtained from the electromagnetic
analysis. There are popular methods for the thermal analysis of electrical machines. They
are computational luid dynamics (CFD), FEM, and nodal method. Structural design aims to
consider the stress and deformation of the machine under the electromagnetic and thermal
analyses. Structural design can be conducted based on FEM as well [12, 13].
Multi-physics design: It aims to calculate the electromagnetic characteristics, temperature
distribution, structural stress, vibration noise, and coupled performances of electrical
machines based on a uniform model [8, 9, 10, 11]. The FEM has been widely employed as a
powerful tool for the multi-physics design and analysis of electrical machines. It can be used
to analyze the coupled ield in machines, such as electromagnetic structure and thermal
structure.

Material design: The type of material is important for the electromagnetic, thermal, and struc-
tural designs of electrical machines. Nowadays, new developed magnetic materials like soft
magnetic composite (SMC), amorphous and grain-oriented silicon steel show beter charac-
teristics, such as high saturation lux density, low speciic losses, and low manufacturing cost.
They can be employed to design motors with new topologies, higher eiciency, and/or low
manufacturing cost [16, 17].
Manufacturing process design: Manufacturing method design is also important in the design
stage of electrical machines, which will inluence their manufacturing quality and actual per-
formances in operation. To obtain the best performances, some designs have complex struc-
tures which can be diicult for manufacturing.
With a good knowledge of the magnetic characteristics and manufacturing methods, we can
fully exploit all the performances of the designed motors. A good motor design should be
done in terms of both output performances and manufacturing abilities [18].

3. Optimization

Optimization is a very popular term in modern design of electrical machines and devices due
to the competition in the world markets, increased cost of electrical energy, and pressures for
its conservation.

Optimization helps designers to push the existing invisible design boundaries while using
available materials and technology. The objective of the optimization process is usually to
minimize either the initial cost of the machine or its lifetime cost including the cost of lost
energy. Other objectives such as mass minimization or eiciency maximization may also be
appropriate in some situations [19, 20].
 Introductory Chapter: Introduction to the Design and the Control of Electrical Machines 7
http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.78772

This can be explained and understood through the words of Miller [21]: “To a WISE engineer,
optimal design means a compromise between conlicting factors, often producing an imper-
fect result from optimistic aspirations.”
Most of the metaheuristic techniques can be used to solve global optimization problems with
nonlinear constraint by using metaheuristic algorithms; there is a high possibility to deter-
mine a near optimal solution, which can be considered by designer and engineering as a
global optimum [22].
One of the most promising algorithms from the class of evolutionary algorithms widely used
in the ield of electric machines is Diferential Evolution (DE) [22–24] irst introduced by Price
and Storn [25] in 1995. The algorithm was later improved and named Generalized Diferential
Evolution (GDE) (extended DE for constrained multi-objective optimization) by Lampinen
and Zelinka [25, 26].
Variety of other algorithms is used in electric machine design optimization: Genetic Algorithm
(GA) [27, 28], Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) [29, 30], Simulated Annealing (SA) [31], etc.
Authors in [32] compared GA, SA, and DE on the design optimization of permanent mag-
net motor and authors in [32] compared DE, GA, and PSO on the design optimization of
microstrip antennas. Both groups agree that the DE performance is the best. In [33, 34], PSO
and GA were compared and PSO was found computationally more efective with slightly
beter objective function value reached. In [35], it is shown how PSO performs beter than GA
so some authors decided to use hybrid GA-PSO method [36, 37].

4. Control of electrical machines

The control of electrical machines has been the subject of great progress, due to the develop-
ment and advancement in the ield of power electronic devices, digital signal processing, the
informatics tools, and advanced control techniques.
The energy conversion between electrical and mechanical power is performed by the electri-
cal machine in both directions. The control of this energy is very important. In the case of
motors, we control the electric power consumed, and in the case of generator, we control
the electric power generated. The control of electrical machines can be expanded to other
variables as speed, voltages, currents, lux, torque, etc. Figure 3 shows the control structure
of electrical machines.

Figure 3. Control structure of electrical machines.

8 Optimization and Control of Electrical Machines

The electrical drive systems are based mostly on electrical machines. These machines can be
designed to operate at diferent speeds: high, medium, and low speed. According to these
beneits, the use of electrical machines with variable speed is very important in the ield of
power station, wind turbine, electrical vehicles, etc.
The electrical machines with high speed is in continuous evolution for a number of applica-
tions, including aero engine spools, electrical turbo-compounding systems, electrical spindles
for milling cuters and grinding, helicopter and racing engines, turbochargers, fuel pumps,
etc. These applications have typical operational speeds of over 10,000 r/min.
In the control design, we follow the next steps:

• Modeling: The plant can be described in the form of some mathematical equations. These
equations constitute the mathematical model of the plant. A plant model should produce
the same output response as the plant for the same inputs.

• Controller design: The controller is designed to meet the performance requirements for the
plant model.

• Implementation: The implementation can be done using a digital computer. Its eiciency
depends on the type of computer available, the type of interface devices between the com-
puter and the plant, software tools, etc.

Figure 4 shows diferent steps of control design.

Figure 4. The steps of control design.

 Introductory Chapter: Introduction to the Design and the Control of Electrical Machines 9
http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.78772

The control of these machines is very complicated. We need to represent them by mathemati-
cal models. Their models are deined by coupled and nonlinear equation systems.

Some mathematical transformations can be used to simplify the form of these models as Park
transformation, Clark transformation, etc. The analytic approach of these equations is very
complicated. To solve these systems of equations, the numerical methods are recommended.
Following the obtained models many strategies of controls were developed such as vector
control, direct torque control, direct power control, etc., and these strategies aim to give more
lexibility to the control systems.
New techniques of control were developed based on the powerful control theory and artiicial
intelligence tools. Many control techniques were studied and applied to electrical machine,
which we can ind variable structure control, model reference adaptive control, adaptive pole
placement control, predictive control, backstepping control, etc. The use of artiicial intel-
ligence techniques has been the subject of many recent researches. The most famous are the
fuzzy logic control, the neuronal control, the neuro fuzzy control, etc. In the literature, we can
ind many researches on these topics.
In [38], a model reference adaptive control-based estimated algorithm was proposed for online
multi-parameter identiication. In [39], MRAS observer was designed for the ield oriented
control of DFIG. Authors in [40] give an overview of model predictive control for induction
motor drives. In [41], cascaded nonlinear predictive control was proposed for the control of
induction motor. Backstepping controller was proposed in [42] for induction machine. An
adaptive backstepping sliding mode controller was presented in [43]. A fuzzy logic controller
was developed for a switched reluctance motor in [44].

Author details

Abdel Ghani Aissaoui

Address all correspondence to: irecom_aissaoui@yahoo.fr
Electrical Department, Faculty of Technology, University of Tahri Mohamed of Bechar,
Algeria

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