The Implications of the Use of Composite Materials in Electromagnetic Device Topology and Shape Optimization

The use of soft magnetic composites (SMCs) provides electromagnetic device designers with serious challenges. While such materials have the potential of allowing novel 3-D topologies to be used, as well as providing major advantages in recycling at the end of the lifetime of the device, little or no design experience exists in this area. This paper proposes the use of sensitivity based topology optimization as a methodology for assisting designers in this task.