ACCELERATING ELECTRIC-MAGNETIC MACHINE SIMULATION USING THE FOURIER NEURAL OPERATOR (FNO)

Electrical machines traditionally rely on Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to evaluate or simulate their properties by solving the associated partial differential equations (PDEs). However, FEA is computationally costly, which limits its capability for rapid design iteration and real-time simulations. While recent surrogate models such as Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) have shown promise, they often suffer from slow convergence and scalability issues in complex geometries. In this paper, we propose the use of the Fourier Neural Operator (FNO) as a resolution-invariant surrogate model to significantly reduce the computation time required for FEA-based PDE solutions in electric machines. Previous research has demonstrated the FNO's ability to learn mappings for time-sequence problems by approximating operators between function spaces. Building on this, we present a methodology to directly predict the later-state electromagnetic fields of a rotating interior permanent magnet (IPM) motor based on its earlier-stage data by approximating the underlying operator that governs these transitions. Our framework enables full-geometry modeling without relying on segmentation, preserving accuracy while dramatically improving computational efficiency. The model was trained and validated on an FEA dataset with multiple boundary conditions and motor configurations, demonstrating strong generalization across different designs and resolutions. Experimental results show that the proposed FNO method achieves a significant reduction in computational time compared to traditional FEA simulations while maintaining an acceptable level of accuracy. This study highlights the potential of neural operators for accelerating electromagnetic simulations, enabling faster design iterations and offering new possibilities for real-time and optimization-based applications in electric machine design.