The Application of Digital Computers to Rotating-Machine Design

Within the past few years the availability of digital computing equipment has provided the design engineer with a new and powerful tool for performing numerical calculations and logical decisions at high speed and low cost. Computer programs for product design may be divided into two characteristic types: performance programs for which the dimensions and other parameters are given as input, and synthesis programs for which the required performance specifications are given as input. Performance programs have been described in the literature for several kinds of power and industrial electric equipment. They are a useful and necessary prerequisite to design synthesis programs which appear to have found their first and most common application in power transformer design. In the opinion of the authors, an extension of the philosophy of design synthesis to the design of rotating machinery is perhaps more difficult, but still a practical venture. A list of programs in actual use for rotating machine design is presented. The features of one induction motor performance program are first described in some detail followed by a description of three programs for synchronous motor design. The combination of these three programs has many of the features of a complete synthesis program, but with sufficient compromise for practical operation on a medium-sized digital computer.