Automated optimization of magnet design using the boundary integral method

In automatic magnet design a computer is allowed to vary some parameters in a search for an optimum; the user defines the choice of and starting values for these parameters, a performance criterion and the constraints, and hopefully the computer does the rest. This paper reviews this type of work and then reports on a number of experiments in this direction using a standard optimizer with the Boundary Integral Method in two-dimensional magnetostatic problems with fixed permeability: these include the minimization of field errors in C-, H- and hybrid H-WF dipoles, and the minimization of the movement of the effective field boundary with change of permeability for a "magnet end". It is concluded that the user must continue to exercise considerable art in his task.