ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY

ANALYSIS OF ELECTRICAL MACHINES

WHITEPAPER

A typical motor or generator includes multiple design elements which can cause electromagnetic compati-
bility (EMC) issues. As well as the main inductances of the motor itself, there is also a parasitic capacitance
between the coil and the housing, between the coil and the shaft, and between implemented sensors. This
parasitic capacitance is responsible for the common mode coupling and capacitive coupling. This white-
paper shows how EMC relevant properties of electrical machines can be extracted by 3D EM simulation.

There exist two coupling paths for common mode noise
to the ground potential (chassis). One is between the coil
through the housing and another one by the shaft/rotor
to attached gear box/chassis. Both coupling paths depend
on the individual connection to ground potential. The
resulting common mode current depends on several
parameters:
• impedance of the housing itself (Z)
• impedance of the connection to GND potential (Z)
• geometrical proportions of the E-motor design
(distance, gaps)
• material properties of conductive and non-conductive
material (ε r)
• manufacturing variations within the e-machine
(tolerances, stray parameter)
The capacitive coupling inside the e-machine causes
noise to be distributed to low-voltage (LV) areas, such as
sensors and resolver, and will lead to a bad high-voltage/
low-voltage (HV/ LV) attenuation behavior.
To analyze the EMC behavior of an E-machine the
parasitic couplings, as described above, needs to be
considered, as well as different scenarios of motor
housing designs and ground connections. In addition the
coupling path from the coil to the LV area needs to be
considered in order to evaluate the HV/LV attenuation.
Electromagnetic simulation using CST Studio Suite®[1]
can be used to calculate the EMC characteristics of a
motor for multiple configurations and investigate the
effect of different design choices on EMC performance.
SIMULATION SET-UP
The first step in analyzing a design is to produce the
model. Often, the CAD data from the mechanical
department is not ideally suited to EMC analysis, due to
fine details that are not electrically relevant. CST Studio
Suite includes both modeling tools and CAD import tools
for a wide range of formats, including tools for cleaning
and simplifying imported files. Imported CAD data can be
also modified and parameterized to allow the effect of
design variations to be found through simulation, and to
make the simulation process more efficient. Because motors
and generators are often symmetrical, simulation
performance can be further improved by using these
symmetries to simulate just a portion of the model.
The simulation was set up with the frequency domain solver
using the tetrahedral mesh, which can resolve the very small
details of the motor around the air gap effectively (see Figure
2). S-parameter ports were used to calculate the impedance
of the motor.
The geometric and material properties of the model can be
parameterized within the CST Studio Suite interface, and the
built-in parameter sweep tool automatically carries out a
series of simulations for different values of these parameters.
As an example, the permittivity of the isolator material
between the coils and the stator was defined as variable
parameter to show the effect of this parameter on the
coupling path. The parameter sweep tool then simulates the
resulted parasitic capacitance for different material properties
across a range defined by the user.
properly measure all the parasitic capacitances, which are
responsible for common mode noise to the ground potential.
This can be carried out virtually by defining ports or probes
across the air gaps, as shown in Figure 2.
Typical capacitance and impedance curves are shown in
Figure 3. These capacitances have a critical impact on the
behavior of the motor. On the one hand, they affect the
impedance between the motor phases and the housing, and
on the other hand, the impedance between the motor
phases and the rotor.
HV/LV attenuation is another important value for the EMC
performance of a motor, and provides a measure of the
coupling between the high-voltage and low-voltage systems.
OEMs set HV/LV attenuation requirements on all high
voltage components – components that do not meet these
specifications may pose a risk to the integrity of low-voltage
syststems. The HV/LV attenuation can be calculated with a
post-processing template in CST Studio Suite (Figure 4),
using the results from probes or ports in the HV and LV parts
of the system as the input and output respectively.

PARAMETERIZATION

ANALYSIS A parameter sweep is especially useful for finding a good

compromise value between opposing design requirements,
One of the advantages of CST Suite Studio is that the 3D and for calculating the effect of material variation and
simulation tool can import and modify external CAD data. geometrical tolerances in the manufacturing process.
This makes it possible to run analyses which would not be
realizable or measurable using a real motor prototype. For
example, it is not possible to deconstruct a real motor to

Capacitance between the coils and the housing Capacitance between the coils and the rotor
1000 1000
300 500

100 100
50
30
10
10 5
3
1
1 0.5
0.3 0.1
0.05
0.1
0.03 0.01
0.005
0.01
0.001
0.003 0.0005
parasitic_capacitance_coil_stator parasitic_capacitance_stator_rotor
0.001 0.0001
0.15 0.3 0.5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 20 30 0.15 0.3 0.5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 20 30 50 70 120
Frequency / MHz Frequency / MHz

Impedance between the coils and the housing Impedance between the coils and the rotor
1000 1000
400 400
200 200
100 100
40 40
20 20
10 10
4 4
2 2
1 1
0.4 0.4
0.2 Z_coil_housing 0.2 Z_coil_rotor
0.1 0.1
Figure 2: Parasitic capacitances in the 0.15 0.3 0.5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10
Frequency / MHz
20 30 50 70 120 0.15 0.3 0.5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10
Frequency / MHz
20 30 50 70 120

electrical machine. The mesh

representation of the motor is shown. Figure 3: Calculated capacitance and impedance within the electrical machine.
 Impedance between the coils and the rotor
For example, an isolator with lower permittivity results in 1000

smaller parasitic capacitance and reduces the coupling 400

between the coils and the housing, as well as between the 200
100
coils and the rotor. The influence of the permittivity on the
40
impedances can be calculated with a parameter sweep
20
across different values of permittivity (Figure 5). 10

4
The impedance behavior illustrates the effect of the coupling 2

path (Figure 6). These impedances depend on the ground 1

eps_r=1.5
0.4
connection of the housing to the chassis. The lower the eps_r=3
0.2 eps_r=6
impedance of the ground connection the better – this 0.1
0.15 0.3 0.5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 20 30 50 70 120
reduces the EMC risk posed by the coupling paths, by
Frequency / MHz
conducting the majority of the common-mode noise to the
chassis. Impedance between the coils and the housing
1000

400
200
100

40
20
10

4
2
1
eps_r=1.5
0.4
eps_r=3
0.2 eps_r=6
0.1
0.15 0.3 0.5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 20 30 50 70 120
Frequency / MHz
Figure 1: Full (left) and simplified (right) representations of an
Figure 5: Results of a parameter sweep showing how the impedance
electrical machine.
curve varies with the permittivity of the isolators.

HV/LV attenuation Impedance between the coils and the rotor

140 1000

400
120
200
100
100
40
80 20
10
60 4
2
40
1

0.4 Z_Housing_chassis=150n
20
Z_Housing_chassis=15n
0.2
Z_Housing_chassis=500n
0 0.1
0.15 0.3 0.5 1 2 3 4 5 67 10 20 30 40 60 120
HV/LV attenuation Frequency / MHz
-20
0.15 0.3 0.5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 20 30
Frequency / MHz Impedance between the coils and the housing
1000

Figure 4: HV/LV attenuation curve between the coil (HV) and the 400

resolver (LV). 200

100

40
20
10

4
2
1

0.4 Z_Housing_chassis=150n
Z_Housing_chassis=15n
0.2
Z_Housing_chassis=500n
0.1
0.15 0.3 0.5 1 2 3 4 5 67 10 20 30 40 60 120
Frequency / MHz

Figure 6: Results of a parameter sweep showing how the impedance

curve varies with the impedance of the ground connection of the
housing to the chassis.
CONCLUSION ABOUT AVL TRIMERICS GMBH

The EMC behavior of an E-machine can be analyzed
considering different material and geometric parameters of
the isolator. This paper has demonstrated two examples of
the analysis of an electrical machine: the analysis of the
isolator between the coils and the stator, and the ground
connection between the motor and the chassis. The two
coupling paths are between the coil through the housing and
another one by the shaft/rotor to attached gear box/chassis.
They are responsible for common mode noise to the ground
potential and depend on the parasitic capacitance. The
smaller the capacitance, the lower the effect of the coupling
path. Also they depend on the ground connection, which
must be very good (lower impedance) to reduce the effect of
The AVL Trimerics GmbH – located at Stuttgart and
Regensburg – is part of the world-wide acting AVL Group. As
a development partner we offer engineering expertise in the
fields of electrical machine (EM) and electromagnetic
compatibility (EMC).
We will support you from concept phase up to series for
E-motors, generators & drives; electromagnetic valves;
electromagnetic actuators; electromagnetic sensors; ESD
and pulse; signal integrity; virtual measurements and EMC in
all systems.
Our company know-how is based on many years of

the coupling path by conducting the common mode noise to
the chassis.
Additionally, the HV/LV attenuation between the coils and
the resolver was analyzed. Depending on the applicable EMC
norm, several counter-measures should be taken into
account to fulfill the requirements. These may involve
changes to the structure and materials, or the inclusion of
additional connections and components such as ferrites. EM
simulation is a powerful tool for the analysis of potential
EMC mitigation strategies.
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experience of our employees and their profound and broad
knowledge in the field of electromagnetism and
electromagnetic compatibility.
For development and optimization of our designs with
regard to electric, magnetic, thermal, mechanical and EMC
aspects we use state of art analytic and numeric simulation
methods.
For more information: http://www.avl.com/emc

REFERENCES

[1] CST Studio Suite, https://www.3ds.com/products-

services/simulia/products/cst-studio-suite/

trademarks is subject to their express written approval.

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