IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 47, NO.
5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011
Case Studies of Acoustic Noise Emission From
Inverter-Fed Asynchronous Machines
Hans Tischmacher, Ioannis P. Tsoumas, Member, IEEE, Benjamin Eichinger, and Ulrich Werner
Abstract—The issue of noise emission from electric drives is
becoming increasingly important. Motor manufacturers have to
comply with certain standards in order to assure the high compet-
itiveness of their products. At the same time, with today’s variable
speed drives, which are supplied with nonsinusoidal voltages, the
issue of noise reduction has become more complex. This is because
the influence of additional factors, compared to machines supplied
with sinusoidal voltage, must be considered over a wide speed
range. The key to optimizing the machine’s acoustic behavior is
the thorough knowledge of the influence of the different noise
sources and the excitation mechanisms over the complete speed
range. Apart from the theoretical analysis and the simulation, an
experimental investigation is necessary to obtain a better under-
standing of the previously mentioned factors and to minimize the
machine’s acoustic noise. This paper presents some characteristic
case studies of acoustic noise emission in asynchronous machines
supplied from voltage source inverters in order to examine the
influence of diverse factors on the total noise level.
Index Terms—Acoustic noise, aerodynamic noise, asynchronous
rotating machines, electromagnetic noise, inverters.
N OMENCLATURE
fa Frequency of the tonal aerodynamic noise harmonic
components.
fk Frequency of the kth space harmonic due to the wind-
ing distribution.
fn Frequency of the nth time harmonic due to converter
operation.
fs Fundamental stator supply frequency.
fsw Switching frequency.
ka Positive integer involved in the aerodynamic noise
harmonic components.
n1 , n2 Positive and negative integers involved in the stator
voltage harmonics due to converter operation.
µ, ν Positive and negative integers involved in the perme-
ance Fourier series of stator and rotor, respectively.
LPA A-weighted sound pressure level [in dB(A)].
m Spatial orders of the electromagnetic force waves.
Manuscript received February 1, 2011; accepted March 16, 2011. Date
of publication July 14, 2011; date of current version September 21, 2011.
Paper 2011-EMC-038, presented at the 2010 International Conference on
Electrical Machines, Rome, Italy, September 6–8, and approved for publication
in the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON I NDUSTRY A PPLICATIONS by the Electric
Machines Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society.
The authors are with Large Drives, Drive Technologies Division, Industry
Sector, Siemens AG, 90441 Nuremberg, Germany (e-mail: hans.tischmacher@
siemens.com; ioannis.tsoumas@siemens.com; benjamin.eichinger@siemens.
com; ulrich.werner@siemens.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIA.2011.2161740
0093-9994/$26.00 © 2011 IEEE
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2013
nm Rotating speed of the fan (in 1/s).
Nbl−d Number of fan blades or axial cooling ducts.
p Number of pole pairs of the motor.
s Rotor slip.
ZR Number of rotor slots.
I. I NTRODUCTION
T HE SOURCES of acoustic noise in electrical machines are
diverse. Apart from mechanical and aerodynamic noise,
noise of electromagnetic origin is a decisive factor for the total
sound pressure level, particularly for converter-fed variable
speed electric drives. The electric motors are usually driven
by voltage-source inverters (VSIs), where a pulsed voltage is
applied directly to the motor windings. This results in addi-
tional harmonic fields in the air gap of the electrical machine,
which, in turn, produce additional electromagnetic noise. The
radial force waves deform the stator core laminations, causing
vibration. There is also a possibility of other parts of the motor
enclosure being strongly excited—such as cooling ducts, fan
cowl, etc.
In addition to the sound pressure measurements using a
suitable number of microphones and the standardized envelope
technique, the use of an acoustic camera is often necessary in
order to precisely locate the excessive noise radiation and to
take the necessary countermeasures regarding the mechanical
design. Another aspect of the machine’s sound design is the
optimal choice of the stator and rotor slot combinations, which
determine the frequencies of the corresponding harmonic fields
and radial force waves. If the latter coincide with the harmonic
force waves due to inverter operation, this can lead to an
excessive noise increase in certain speed ranges.
By adopting suitable measures regarding the complete drive
design, the objective is to find an optimum for minimal noise
emissions over the complete speed range. The main areas to
concentrate on to achieve this are the source of excitation itself,
i.e., the power electronic converter, and the actual source of the
noise, i.e., the motor. The main emphasis of this paper concerns
the possibilities of optimizing the motor. Due to the diverse
nature of the excitation sources, knowledge of the different
noise generation mechanisms is of decisive importance in order
to define the appropriate corrective measures. This means that
special emphasis has to be given to the interaction, as well
as the transitions among the different excitation mechanisms.
For example, the effects of the inverter supply can be covered
partially or completely by the noise of an external cooling
fan. Also, an unfavorable stator and rotor slot combination can
amplify the effects arising from the inverter operation.
2014 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 47, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011
Fig. 1. Transmission paths from the inverter to the radiated sound.
The possibilities of noise reduction depend strongly on the
aforementioned factors. Therefore, the purpose of this paper
is to examine the influence of the different noise sources on
the total sound pressure level by experimentally investigating
the noise characteristics of several asynchronous motors, with
different nominal powers and cooling methods.
II. S OURCES OF N OISE IN E LECTRICAL M ACHINES
The sources of noise in electrical machines can be classified
into three different types [1]: aerodynamic or windage noise,
mechanical noise, and electromagnetic noise.
A. Aerodynamic Noise
The basic source of aerodynamic noise is the fan, which
is either internal and shaft driven or external and indepen-
dently supplied. There are broad-band aerodynamic noise (100–
10 000 Hz) and siren noise (tonal noise) [1]. The latter is
produced by the interaction between fan blades, rotor slots, or
rotor axial ventilation ducts. Its distinct frequency components
appear at frequencies that are multiples of the product of the
rotating speed of the fan and the number of blades or the
number of ducts [1], [2]
fa = ka · nm · Nbl−d
where Nbl−d is the number of the fan blades or axial cooling
ducts, nm is the rotating speed of the fan in revolutions per
second, and ka is a positive integer. The aerodynamic noise gen-
erated by shaft-driven fans is dominant at high motor speeds.
B. Mechanical Sources of Noise
The mechanical noise is mainly due to bearings and their
defects, and shaft and rotor irregularities, e.g., rotor imbalance
or shaft misalignment, as well as due to toothed gear trains [1].
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C. Electromagnetic Sources of Noise
The electromagnetic noise in electrical machines is mainly
due to the force waves produced by the air-gap magnetic flux
waves. The principal source of electromagnetic noise is the
radial component of the magnetic force (the tangential compo-
nent and magnetostriction effects are usually neglected [3]–[5]).
The radial force waves cause the laminated core to oscillate
(forced oscillations), producing structure-borne acoustic noise.
Furthermore, these oscillations are transmitted to the surround-
ing enclosure as excitation. The enclosure now serves as the
transmission element, and when its eigenmodes are excited, it
can also increase the level of noise that is radiated. The different
transmission paths from the supply voltage to the radiated noise
are shown in Fig. 1. In addition to the radial force waves,
torque pulsations and tangential forces can also contribute to
vibrations and magnetic noise [1].
The magnetic force applied on the inner stator surface is
proportional to the square of the air-gap magnetic flux density;
the flux density is obtained from the product of the air-gap
permeance and the air-gap magnetomotive force (MMF).
For electric motors fed directly from the line supply, the most
important force waves regarding the acoustic noise radiation
arise due to the following interactions [4].
1) Force waves due to the interaction of the µth stator and
the νth rotor slot harmonics with the following frequen-
cies and spatial orders:
(1)

ZR
f = fs q (1 − s) + 2 , for spatial order m = µ + ν
p
(2a)


ZR
f = fs q (1 − s) , for spatial order m = µ − ν
p
(2b)
where q = ±1, ±2, ±3, . . ., fs is the stator supply fre-
quency, s is the slip, p is the number of pole pairs, and
ZR is the number of rotor slots. The amplitudes of the
magnetic field harmonics decrease with harmonic orders
TISCHMACHER et al.: CASE STUDIES OF ACOUSTIC NOISE EMISSION FROM ASYNCHRONOUS MACHINES 2015

µ and ν; in addition, the force waves are noisier for low

spatial orders [4], [5].
2) Force waves due to the interaction of the permeance space
harmonics and the MMF space harmonics associated with
current harmonics due to the winding distribution. The
most important of the aforementioned force waves has the
following frequencies and spatial orders:

| ± fk − fs | 
f=  ,
fk ± fs + q ZpR (1 − s)fs 

for spatial order m = 0, 2 (3)

where fk is the frequency of the kth current harmonic.

These forces, which arise due to the nonsinusoidal wind-
ing distribution, become important as the load increases
[5], [6].
For converter-fed electric motors, besides the aforemen-
tioned force waves, additional force waves are produced
by the interaction of the MMF and permeance space har-
monics with the time harmonics due to converter operation.
The most important of these is produced by the interaction of
the fundamental flux density and its time harmonics and has the
Fig. 2. Line-to-line voltage waveform and its FFT for SVM with a switching
following frequencies and spatial orders [4], [5]: frequency of 2.5 kHz.

f = |fn − fs |, for spatial order m = 0 (4a)

f = |fn + fs |, for spatial order m = 2p (4b)

where fn is the frequency of the time harmonics due to con-

verter operation.
For the cases studied in this paper, the electric motors are
supplied from a VSI with space vector modulation (SVM) [7].
The frequency of the voltage time harmonics is given by the
formula

fn = |n1 fsw + n2 fs | (5)

where fsw is the switching frequency and n1 and n2 are

integers, where, if n1 is an odd integer, n2 will be an even
integer and vice versa. The line-to-line voltage waveform and
its fast Fourier transform (FFT) for a switching frequency
of 2.5 kHz are shown in Fig. 2. The harmonic components
are arranged in groups of sidebands around multiples of the
switching frequency. The components in the areas of the single-
and double-switching frequencies are clearly dominant.
From the three different types of audible noise in electric
motors, this paper only examines two; mechanical noise is
beyond the scope of this paper. Characteristic case studies of
acoustic noise of aerodynamic and electromagnetic origins are
presented in the following sections.
III. A ERODYNAMIC N OISE
A. Case Study 1—Aerodynamic Noise Due to the External Fan
and the Ventilation Blades Attached to the Rotor End Ring
The first inverter-fed motor that is investigated is a four-pole
air-cooled asynchronous motor with a shaft height of 280 mm
and a degree of protection of IP23. The specific motor series
Fig. 3. Case study 1—Cooling process for open-circuit ventilation (IP23)
from the nondrive end to the drive end for the tested motor.
is available with degrees of protection of IP23 and IP55. For
the IP23 motors, a separately driven external fan is used to
circulate the air from the nondrive end to the drive end, where
the air is discharged to the environment through the slots in the
enclosure (Fig. 3). For IP55 motors, an external fan blows the
air through the cooling ducts in the stator core. With this type
of ventilation, the blades attached to the rotor end ring serve
as ventilation blades to circulate the air inside the motor. IP23
motors also have these blades, mainly for reasons related to the
manufacturing process.
The sound pressure level has been measured in a spe-
cial chamber designed for acoustic noise measurements ac-
cording to ISO 3744. The enveloping surface method on
a parallelepiped measurement surface was applied [8] using

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2016 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 47, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011
Fig. 4. Case study 1—Microphone positions and measurement surface.
14 microphones (Fig. 4). Several configurations have been
investigated, for different dc-link voltage levels of the inverter
and different switching frequencies. In all of the tests, the motor
operated without a load. The asynchronous motor was always
started relatively slowly up to 3300 1/min. The motor noise
was also measured as it coasted down after the supply was
switched off. This was done in order to distinguish aerodynamic
noise and mechanical noise from noise with an electromagnetic
origin. The A-weighting function, which is the most widely
used, was applied to the measured sound pressure level.
The measured A-weighted sound pressure level for two
characteristic configurations is shown in Fig. 5. In the first
configuration, the external fan is in operation, and in the second
configuration, it has been switched off. As can be seen from the
diagram, for speeds higher than 1750 1/min, the aerodynamic
noise dominates; there is a very small difference between when
the motor is being accelerated and when it coasts down with
the power disconnected. The same was true for another six
configurations that have been tested, for different switching
frequencies and dc-link voltages. These are not shown in the di-
agram since the sound pressure level above 1750 1/min was the
same as the ones shown. In the spectrogram in Fig. 6, the har-
monic components at the sidebands of the multiples of the in-
verter’s switching frequency dominate at low speeds; on the
other hand, at high speeds, the dominant harmonic components
are due to the blades attached to the rotor ring (they have
frequencies that are multiples of the product of the shaft’s
rotating frequency and the number of the ventilation blades).
In order to estimate the contribution of the rotor blades
to the total sound pressure level—to evaluate the possibilities
of reducing noise as the ventilation blades are not necessary
for IP23 motors—the first three harmonic components coming
from the rotor blades have been filtered out; specifically, the
harmonics of 11th, 22nd, and 33rd orders (the rotor shaft
frequency is the first order, and the rotor has 11 blades), with
a Butterworth filter of the 10th order. The filtering has been
conducted in the sound pressure level spectrum of the second
configuration (with the separately driven fan switched off), in
order to ensure that any noise coming from the external fan is
not filtered out. The original and the filtered spectrograms are
shown in Figs. 7 and 8, respectively.
In order to estimate the difference with the external fan in
operation, the sound pressure level of the fan, which has been
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measured separately and which is depicted with the straight
dotted line in Fig. 10, has been added to the filtered sound
pressure level (this addition is admissible for incoherent sound
sources [1]). As can be seen in Fig. 10, at speeds higher
than 1700 1/min, the difference between the computed sound
pressure level and that of the first configuration (external fan
in operation) is up to 8 dB(A), which is a significant noise
reduction. The harmonics of the 44th and 55th orders have
not been filtered out, since that would also diminish harmonics
caused by the inverter.
Subsequently, the rotor blades have been removed, and
the sound pressure level during the motor’s run-up has been
recorded again. The spectrogram of the run-up is depicted
in Fig. 9. As can be seen in Fig. 10 (green curve), the measured
noise is up to 10 dB(A) lower compared to the motor with
the blades on the rotor. This is consistent with the expected
reduction, showing that the contribution of the broad-band
noise and of the harmonics of the 44th and 55th orders to the
aerodynamic noise is very small compared to that of the first
three harmonics (the harmonics of 11th, 22nd, and 33rd orders)
of the rotor blades. This is an example of how the feedback
from the motor noise measurements can be used to optimize
the machine’s design with regard to the aerodynamic noise
reduction.
IV. N OISE OF E LECTROMAGNETIC O RIGIN
A. Case Study 2—Noise Reduction in a Rib-Cooled Standard
Motor Fed From an Inverter
The possibilities of optimizing the noise on the motor side
will be also shown using a rib-cooled standard motor with
a shaft height of 315 mm as an example. A more detailed
presentation of this optimization is available in [9]. The motor
is fed from an inverter with a switching frequency of 2 kHz. In
order to measure the noise hot spots at the motor, an approach
that combines soundscaping using an acoustic camera and the
standardized enveloping surface method is applied. With the
enveloping surface method, it is possible to detect possible
increases in the sound pressure level in the time and frequency
domains over the complete speed range. As a result of the
coupled soundscaping, the locations from where noise is being
radiated can be localized.
With the motor used in the example, the fan cowl and the
lateral cooling ducts at the motor enclosure were identified
as the locations from where sound was being radiated. This
information is then the basis for the next stage of the optimiza-
tion procedure: modal analysis of the hot spot areas based on
simulation, as well as defining possible measures to reduce the
noise. Simulating the actual state helps to visualize the various
operations and make them understandable, and this forms the
basis for modifications to reduce the noise. The calculated
modal analysis of a simplified model of the fan cowl resulted
in approximately 65 natural modes in the range extending from
1.2 to 4.2 kHz (Fig. 11).
This calculation indicated that no significant improvements
could be expected by modifying the fan cowl by changing the
mass distribution or stiffness. This modification would only
mean that another natural mode would be excited. It appeared
TISCHMACHER et al.: CASE STUDIES OF ACOUSTIC NOISE EMISSION FROM ASYNCHRONOUS MACHINES 2017

Fig. 5. Case study 1—Sound pressure level during the run-up for two different configurations and during the coasting down with the power disconnected (motor
with ventilation blades on the rotor).

Fig. 6. Case study 1—Spectrogram of the sound pressure level during the machine’s run-up for the first configuration (motor with ventilation blades on the
rotor + external fan in operation).

Fig. 7. Case study 1—Spectrogram of the run-up with the external fan Fig. 9. Case study 1—Spectrogram of the run-up after the rotor blades have
switched off (second configuration). been removed. The external fan is switched off.

Fig. 8. Case study 1—Spectrogram of the run-up with the external fan
switched off. The first three harmonics due to the rotor blades have been
filtered out.
that the most effective method to reduce the fan cowl noise
would be to decouple the fan cowl from the exciting motor. In
order to calculate the natural mode in the area of the cooling
duct, it makes sense to separate this area from the complete
motor. The limits of the area have been selected so that the
influence of the remaining structure on the natural mode being
searched for is as low as possible. The simulation of natural
modes between 1.2 and 4 kHz, in addition to several nonrele-
vant modes, indicated a distinct mode shape close to 2 kHz. For
this natural mode, only the cover panel of the duct oscillates in
the normal direction (Fig. 12).
This result allows us to possibly assume that, at 2 kHz, the
mode is excited by a harmonic field at the group of sidebands

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2018 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 47, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011
Fig. 10. Case study 1—Sound pressure level of the run-up for different configurations.
Fig. 11. Case study 2—Fan cowl eigenmode near 2 kHz.
Fig. 12. Case study 2—First air duct eigenmode (at a frequency of 2119 Hz).
around the first multiple of the switching frequency that excites
the airborne sound. The consequence is the 2-kHz tone. A
hammer test carried out on the cooling duct of the motor, used
in the example, also indicated a natural frequency at 2 kHz.
The finite-element (FE) model, verified by making appropriate
measurements, is now a basis for the modifications that are
initially virtual. Calculations performed on various cooling duct
variants with thicker materials or rib reinforcements indicated
the influence of the variations on the number of natural modes
and their positions in the frequency range. It was possible to
obtain significantly fewer natural frequencies in the range of
interest. Furthermore, the natural mode can be shifted to fre-
quencies that are less critical. After the modifications, the first
relevant natural mode of the channel is 2.9 kHz. A hammer test
performed on the modified motor used in the example indicated
that this matches the simulation results. A new analysis using
the acoustic camera indicated a reduction of the sound pressure
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level as a result of the motor modification. The sound pressure
level was reduced by approximately 4 dB(A) by decoupling the
fan cowl. However, this resulted in a more distinct occurrence of
the tonal components of the lateral cooling duct. The additional
measures taken at the cooling duct also reduce this by 3 dB(A).
The hot spot on the cooling duct has disappeared (Fig. 13).
B. Case Study 3—Noise Increase in a Specific Speed Range
Due to Resonance
This case study deals with the increase in the sound pressure
level at a specific speed range due to the increase of a sideband
harmonic of the switching frequency. The inverter-fed motor
being investigated is a four-pole asynchronous motor with a
shaft height of 355 mm. The enveloping surface method on a
parallelepiped measurement surface was applied to measure the
noise under no-load operation, using 14 microphones.
The sound pressure level during run-up for two different
switching frequencies (2 and 2.5 kHz) is shown in Fig. 14. For
speeds lower than 1250 1/min, the noise of electromagnetic
origin dominates. In particular, at a switching frequency of
2 kHz, there is a sudden increase of the noise level in the speed
range between 800 and 1000 1/min. The noise mainly comes
from the laminated core—as can be seen in Fig. 15—in contrast
to 2000 1/min where the noise mainly comes from the louvres
(Fig. 16).
The spectrogram of the motor’s run-up (Fig. 17) reveals a
considerable increase of the spectral components with frequen-
cies fsw − 3fs and fsw − 5fs in the specific speed range, as
it can also be clearly seen in Fig. 18, where the FFT of the
sound pressure level at a speed of 910 1/min is illustrated.
Those frequencies correspond to two of the radial force waves
produced by the interaction of the fundamental flux density and
its time harmonics due to inverter operation.
For a switching frequency of 2.5 kHz, the aforementioned
spectral components have frequencies far enough away from
the motor eigenfrequencies, and the sound pressure level is
approximately 7 dB(A) lower in that speed range. This infor-
mation about possible resonance points and the corresponding
TISCHMACHER et al.: CASE STUDIES OF ACOUSTIC NOISE EMISSION FROM ASYNCHRONOUS MACHINES 2019

Fig. 13. Case study 2—Diagram showing modifications to the motor using soundscapes at 1000 1/min motor speed (fsw = 2 kHz).

Fig. 14. Case study 3 (open-circuit fan-cooled motor)—Sound pressure level during run-up for two different switching frequencies and with the motor coasting
down.

noise increase for certain combinations of switching frequen-
cies and speed ranges obtained from the field tests is necessary
in order to optimize the drive’s acoustic behavior.
Another example of noise increase at certain speeds due to
resonance is shown in Fig. 19, where two run-ups for different
switching frequencies of the rib-cooled motor investigated in
the previous case study (before the modifications) are depicted.
Usually, the motor gets quieter with increasing switching fre-
quency [1], [10]. In this case, however, due to the resonance
examined in the previous section, the motor is louder in a wide
speed range for a switching frequency of 2 kHz compared to a
switching frequency of 1.25 kHz.
C. Case Study 4—Temperature Dependence of the Noise of
Electromagnetic Origin
The last case study presented in this paper deals with the
potential influence of the motor’s temperature on the noise

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2020 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 47, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011
Fig. 15. Case study 3 (open-circuit fan-cooled motor)—Acoustic photograph
(soundscape) of the motor surface at 930 1/min and fsw = 2 kHz.
Fig. 16. Case study 3 (open-circuit fan-cooled motor)—Acoustic photograph
(soundscape) of the motor surface at 2000 1/min and fsw = 2 kHz.
Fig. 17. Case study 3 (open-circuit fan-cooled motor)—Spectrogram of the
sound pressure level during the machine run-up for fsw = 2 kHz.
level. The converter-fed motor being investigated is a four-pole
asynchronous motor with a shaft height of 180 mm. Noise
measurements conducted on this motor in a cold condition
(winding temperature of 40 ◦ C) have shown two peaks at
speeds 1600–1900 and 3900–4200 1/min (Fig. 20). The initial
tests have revealed a strong dependence on the temperature,
particularly for the first peak mentioned before. In this paper,
we focus on the temperature dependence of the latter (the peak
close to 1700 1/min). In order to examine this behavior in detail,
the sound pressure level at different winding temperatures has
been measured. All of the measurements have been carried
out using the enveloping surface method on a parallelepiped
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Fig. 18. Case study 3 (open-circuit fan-cooled motor)—FFT of the sound
pressure level at n = 910 1/min for fsw = 2 kHz.
Fig. 19. Case study 3 (rib-cooled motor)—Sound pressure level during run-up
for two different switching frequencies.
Fig. 20. Case study 4—Sound pressure level of the motor’s run-up for a
winding temperature of 40 ◦ C (fsw = 4 kHz).
measurement surface for operation with partially loaded motor,
using nine microphones.
The spectrogram of the machine’s run-up for a wind-
ing temperature of 40 ◦ C is shown in Fig. 21. Regarding
the first peak of the sound pressure level at speeds 1600–
1900 1/min, an increase of the harmonic with frequency
fsw − 3fs can be observed. In this range, this harmonic has a
frequency close to 3820 Hz. The noise mainly comes from the
motor’s laminated core, as shown in Fig. 22. The eigenmodes
and the corresponding eigenfrequencies of a simplified 2-D
FE motor model have been calculated. The FE calculations
revealed that the seventh eigenmode has a frequency close to
3800 Hz (the frequency where the increase in the sideband
TISCHMACHER et al.: CASE STUDIES OF ACOUSTIC NOISE EMISSION FROM ASYNCHRONOUS MACHINES
Fig. 21. Case study 4—Spectrogram of the sound pressure level of the motor’s
run-up for a winding temperature of 40 ◦ C (fsw = 4 kHz).
Fig. 22. Case study 4—Acoustic photograph (soundscape) of the upper motor
surface at 1720 1/min for a winding temperature of 40 ◦ C (fsw = 4 kHz).
Fig. 23. Case study 4—Seventh mode of vibration of the motor’s laminated
core calculated by a simplified 2-D FE model.
harmonic has been measured); more specifically, it is 3830 Hz
at a temperature of 30 ◦ C. The corresponding mode of vibra-
tion is shown in Fig. 23. As shown in Fig. 24, the specific
eigenfrequency is temperature dependent, and for a temperature
of 100 ◦ C, it has a value close to 3700 Hz, which is more
than 100 Hz lower when compared to its value at 30 ◦ C. The
corresponding mode of vibration is a pulsating mode; therefore,
it can be strongly excited by the force wave with frequency
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2021
Fig. 24. Case study 4—Dependence of the motors’s eigenfrequencies on the
temperature as calculated by a simplified 2-D FE model.
Fig. 25. Case study 4—Sound pressure level of the motor’s run-up for
different winding temperatures (fsw = 4 kHz).
fsw − 3fs , which also has spatial order m = 0 (pulsating force
wave).
As the motor’s temperature increases, the frequency of the
eigenmode decreases, and the amplitude of the sound pressure
level at the resonance point also drops. As can be observed in
Fig. 25, the sound pressure level at 1720 1/min is reduced by
approximately 6 dB(A) from when the motor is cold (40 ◦ C) to
when it is warm (80 ◦ C).
V. C ONCLUSION
Four characteristic case studies of acoustic noise emission
in inverter-fed variable speed drives have been presented. The
influences of various factors and the speed ranges where these
factors dominate have been experimentally investigated.
The inverter modulation characteristics (modulation strategy
and switching frequency) have a predominant role in the motor
noise emission of adjustable speed drives, for speed lower
2022 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 47, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011
than the rated motor speed. In this paper, only some examples
from converters operating with the well-known SVM have been
presented. It is important to note that, although, in the literature,
higher modulation frequency is considered to decrease the
generated motor noise, the experience from the field tests shows
that, sometimes, this is not the case due to resonances that may
take place in a higher switching frequency. This may happen
particularly in the switching frequency range of 1–3 kHz, where
most large drives (of several hundred kilowatts up to 1 MW)
operate. One example of such a resonance has been presented
in this paper.
Apart from the inverter modulation characteristics that in-
fluence the frequencies and the amplitudes of the radial force
waves, as well as the mechanical motor design which defines
the motor eigenmodes and eigenfrequencies, one additional
important factor is the motor temperature; in some cases, the
sound pressure level difference between cold and warm motors
can be significant. As shown in the last case study presented
in this paper, this can be partially attributed to the change of
the stiffness and, consequently, of the mechanical eigenfre-
quencies. However, the temperature change influences also the
damping coefficient, a factor that should also be investigated
via experiment and FE analysis in a future work.
In addition to the noise measurements using the standardized
enveloping surface method, the soundscaping technique using
an acoustic camera is often necessary for noise mapping in
order to identify the points of excessive noise emission. This
allows us to make more effective modifications, if necessary, to
the mechanical design in order to minimize the acoustic noise
level.
Another useful tool for the identification of the sources of the
acoustic noise is the spectrogram of the sound pressure level.
As it has been shown in this paper, the latter can be also used
as a “sound design tool,” in order to estimate the possible noise
reduction that can be achieved by making certain modifications.
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[8] Determination of Sound Power Levels of Noise Sources Using Sound
Pressure, EN ISO 3744, 1995.
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Hans Tischmacher was born in Wolfsburg,
Germany, in August 1966. He received the Dipl.-
Eng. degree in electrical drives from the Technical
University of Braunschweig, Braunschweig,
Germany, in 1994.
He is currently with Large Drives, Drive Tech-
nologies Division, Industry Sector, Siemens AG,
Nuremberg, Germany. He has 15 years of experience
in the development and testing of electrical motors
and power electronic converters. He is the holder of
several patents in this field. His scientific interests
include electric drive systems, power electronics, and electrical machines,
particularly the effects of power electronic converters on electrical machines,
e.g., bearing currents, noise emission, insulation stress, etc.
Ioannis P. Tsoumas (M’04) was born in Athens,
Greece, in November 1976. He received the Dipl.-
Eng. and Dr.-Eng. degrees in electrical and computer
engineering from the University of Patras, Patras,
Greece, in 2000 and 2007, respectively.
He is currently with Large Drives, Drive Tech-
nologies Division, Industry Sector, Siemens AG,
Nuremberg, Germany. His scientific interests include
electric drive systems, power electronics, electrical
machines, and electric drives monitoring and fault
diagnosis, as well as the effects related to the inter-
action of power electronic converters and electrical machines.
Dr. Tsoumas is a member of the VDE and the Technical Chamber of Greece.
Benjamin Eichinger was born in Erlangen,
Germany, in December 1980. He received the
Dipl.-Eng. (FH) degree in mechanical engineering
and the M.Eng. degree from the University of
Applied Sciences, Nuremberg, Germany, in 2005
and 2007, respectively.
He has been with Large Drives, Drive
Technologies Division, Industry Sector, Siemens
AG, Nuremberg, since 2005. His scientific interests
include technical acoustics, mechanics, and strength
of materials.
Ulrich Werner was born in Erlangen, Germany,
in February 1969. He received the Dipl.Ing. de-
gree from the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg,
Erlangen, in 1994, and the Dr. Ing. degree from
the University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany,
in 2006.
He has been with Large Drives, Drive Tech-
nologies Division, Industry Sector, Siemens AG,
Nuremberg, Germany, since 1994. His scientific in-
terests include simulation of machine vibrations and
rotor dynamics, particularly for electrical machines.
Dr. Werner is member of the VDI and the VDE.