Thermal design of an electric motor using Particle Swarm Optimization

In this paper, flow inside an electric machine called starter-alternator is studied parametrically with CFD in order to be used by a thermal lumped model coupled to an optimization algorithm using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). In a first case, the geometrical parameters are symmetric allowing us to model only one side of the machine. The optimized thermal results are not conclusive. In a second case, all the parameters are independent. In this case, the flow is strongly influenced by the dissymmetry. Optimization results are this time a clear improvement compared to the original machine.