Acoustic Simulation of an Induction Machine with Squirrel-Cage Rotor

C. Schlensok, D. van Riesen, T. Küest, G. Henneberger

Institute of Electrical Machines (IEM), RWTH Aachen University, Germany
Schinkelstraße 4, D-52056 Aachen, Germany, phone: (+49 241 8 09 76 67), fax: (+49 241 8 09 22 70)
e-mail: [Link]@[Link]

I. INTRODUCTION in induction machines. For linear interpolation of the

time-dependent variables the first order time-step algo-
Due to the customer’s satisfaction the acoustics in cars rithm is applied and A(t) can be written as a function
are getting more and more part of research. Nowa- of time:
days, there are many electromagnetic devices in cars,
which have replaced mechanical systems. One exam- A(t) = (1 − Θ) An + Θ An+1 (2)
ple for this trend is an electrical machine replacing the t − tn t − tn
Θ = = ; 0 ≤ Θ ≤ 1 . (3)
hydraulic power-steering drive. In this paper an induc- tn+1 − tn ∆t
tion machine with squirrel-cage rotor is analyzed re-
garding the electromagnetically excited audible noise. Θ is the weighting parameter and set to Θ = 23 accord-
This motor is employed as power-steering drive. The ing to the Galerkin scheme [2]. Setting Θ = 32 results
aim of this work is to predict the noise generated by in fastest convergence for the transient simulation.
the device. The machine is simulated using the Finite- The induction machine regarded has NS = 36 sta-
Element Method (FEM) for the electromagnetic and tor and NR = 26 rotor slots. Due to the number of
the structural-dynamic model and the Boundary-Element rotor slots the motor shows a 180◦ symmetry. There-
Method (BEM) for the noise estimation. fore, a half (180◦ ) FEM-model is used. The 2D elec-
tromagnetic model consists of 6,882 first order, trian-
gular elements. 4,000 time steps are calculated at rated
II. FEM/BEM SIMULATION speed nN = 1, 200 rpm and a stator frequency of f1 =
The computational process of acoustic simulation of 48.96 Hz. The resulting torque behavior of the transient
the induction machine is divided into three steps: calculation is shown in Fig. 1. When the transient phe-
nomenon has died out the time behavior is analyzed.
1. electromagnetic FEM simulation, The average torque is T 2D = 4.312 Nm.
2. structural-dynamic FEM computation, and the
3. acoustic BEM calculation.
For all three steps models of the machine geometry have
to be built and discretized which take the relevant parts
of the machine into account, respectively.

ELECTROMAGNETIC SIMULATION

In the case of induction machines with squirrel-cage

rotor the rotor-bar currents are unknown. Therefore, a
transient calculation, which takes the rotational move-
ment into account, has to be performed. In order to
reduce the computation time the machine is calculated Figure 1: Resulting Torque Obtained from the 2D Model.
~
in 2 dimensions at first. The A-formulation used in the
solver iMOOSE.tsa2d reads: With
Azn+1 − Azn
Jz = −σ (4)
∂ ∆t
R

Γ
∇αi · ν · ∇Az (t) + αi · σ · ∂t Az (t) dΓ
R   the rotor-bar current-density Jz is evaluated. Az is the
= αi · J z0 (t) + ∇ × (αi e
~z ) · ν ~ r dΓ ,
B (1) ~ The
Γ z-component of the magnetic vector potential A.
∀ i = 1, 2, . . . , nn . conductivity of the rotor bars is represented by σ. The
time step is ∆t.
The equation given in Galerkin formulation [1] is solved Fig. 2 shows the resulting rotor-bar currents for four
in the entire model region Γ. The material parameters bars. The frequency is the slip frequency f2 = 8.96 Hz.
ν and σ represent the non-linear reluctivity and the lin- The maximal current amplitude reached for all bars is
ear conductivity. The shape function of an element is Imax = 248.32 A and the amplitude of the fundamental
defined by αi . First order triangular shaped elements is Iˆ1 = 220.86 A. The first significant harmonic order is
are used. Jz0 (t) describes the z-component of the given the fifth order of the stator frequency at f5 = 244.8 Hz
coil current-density and B ~ r is the remanence of pos- with Iˆ5 = 23.15 A which is modulated with twice the
sible permanent magnets which of course do not exist slip frequency: f = 226.88 Hz and f = 262.72 Hz.
 The mechanical angle between each static time step is
∆α = 3◦ . The machine’s skewing angle is γ = 10◦ .
For each time step the rotor is detached from the sta-
tor, rotated, and reattached. The models are generated
automatically with the FEM-tool ANSYS [5]. Fig. 4
shows the flux-density distribution for one time step
exemplary.

Figure 2: Resulting Rotor-Bar Currents for Four Rotor

Bars Obtained from the 2D Model.

The resulting current densities are used by the static,

3-dimensional FEM model, which computes the ma-
chine using iMOOSE.stat3d. The 3D static electromag-
netic solver formulation applying the magnetic vector
~ in Galerkin scheme reads [3]:
potential A
~ dΩ
R
Ω
∇ × α~i · ν · ∇ × A
R   Figure 4: Flux-Density Distribution for the 3D Model.
= Ω α~i · J~0 + ∇ × α~i · ν B~r dΩ , (5)
∀ i = 1, 2, . . . , nn . STRUCTURAL-DYNAMIC SIMULATION
Both solvers from equations (1) and (5) are part of the
From the flux-density distribution the surface-force
open-source software iMOOSE [4].
density on the stator teeth can be derived using the
The FEM-model consists of 288,782 first order tetra-
Maxwell-stress tensor [3][6]. The formulation reads:
hedral elements. For computation-time saving-reasons
the axial length of the model is reduced to a third of the 1
iron length. The skewing angle (front to back angle) is ~σ = ~n12 [Bn (H1n − H2n ) − (w10 − w20 )] . (6)
2
kept the same. Fig. 3 shows the electromagnetic model
of the motor. The index n represents the normal components of B ~
~
and H. ~n12 is the normal vector of the boundary sur-
face from region 2 to 1. w10 and w20 are the magnetic
co-energy densities of these regions. Lorentz forces and
forces stemming from magnetostriction can be neglected
since they are much lower than the electromagnetic
forces.
Fig. 5 shows the surface-force density distribution
for one time step. The skewing of the rotor is reflected

Figure 3: 3D FEM Model for Electromagnetic Simulation.

The stator winding head and the short-circuit ring

of the rotor are reduced to extended bars, which are
surrounded by air. This allows a more realistic con-
sideration of the front leakage than in case of the 2D
model. There, of course no front leakage can be re-
garded. The figure also shows the two-layer winding of
the stator and the complicated modeling of the skewed
rotor. To avoid the slicing of rotor bars which would Figure 5: Surface-Force Density Distribution on the Stator
result in very difficult to compute current excitations Teeth for One Time Step (Only Stator Lamination Shown).
the rotor is modeled in such a way that it is twisted in
the same way the bars are. in the force excitation of the stator teeth. Depending
The machine is calculated at N = 120 rotor po- on the rotational direction the up-running edge of each
sitions. The skewing of the rotor is kept the same. tooth is excited highest on the front or on the back side.
 Figure 6: Exploded View of the Structure-Dynamic Model of the Induction Machine with Squirrel-Cage Rotor.

In a next step the force excitation has to be analyzed. tor tooth geometry is reduced to a rectangular shape.
For each element of the stator teeth connected to the air The number of first order tetrahedral elements of the
gap the values of all time steps are collected and then mechanical model is 90,065. The solver transforms the
transformed into the frequency domain using the Fast- first order elements to second order. Fig. 6 shows an
Fourier Transformation (FFT) [7]. This is a very time exploded view of the entire model.
intensive step in the acoustic analysis of an electrical With the mechanical model the deformation of the
machine, because the data is distributed to each time structure of the induction machine is computed for the
step but must be assigned to each element. This means, selected frequencies in the following step. Therefore,
that for each of the 20,602 stator-teeth surface elements the surface-force density excitation is transformed from
which are connected to the air gap, 120 force-density the electromagnetic model to the mechanical model for
values must be collected and analyzed using the FFT. each of the selected frequencies.
Finally the FFT values must be resorted to two files per The deformation-solver formulation reads [11]:
frequency which hold the imaginary and the real part
of the surface-force density excitation. The resulting K · D + F · Ḋ + M · D̈ = R . (7)
spectrum (absolute values) for one single stator-tooth K is the matrix of the stiffness of all elements of the
element is depicted in Fig. 7. model, M represents the mass, F is the damping, D
is the deformation, and R is the exciting force. Due to
harmonic analysis (7) is simplified to:

(K − ω 2 · M + jω · F ) · D = R . (8)

ω = 2π f is the angular frequency. The damping F

can be neglected since the mechanical model is built
of material with high elastic stress modules. If for in-
stance rubber is used the damping cannot be neglected.
Therefore, the solver is not able to regard such elas-
tic materials. Initial tension is not regarded as well.
Usually, initial tension mainly arises from temperature
effects which are not subject of the investigations.
Figure 7: Spectrum of the Surface-Force Density Excita-
K is the sum of all element-stiffness matrices ki :
tion of One Single Stator-Tooth Surface Element (Absolute-
Values). Xn Xn Z
K= ki = B Ti · H i · B i dΩi . (9)
Ωi
Due to the time step ∆t and the number of time i=1 i=1
steps N the cut-off frequency is fc o = 1, 200 Hz with
H i is the elasticity matrix for each element [2]:
∆f = 20 Hz which is equal to the rotor speed. The har-
monic orders detected in the spectrum are the double Hi =
stator frequency (97.92 Hz), the first and second rotor 
1 a a 0 0 0

slot harmonic (520 Hz and 1040 Hz), and their modu-  a 1 a 0 0 0 
lations with the double stator frequency [8][9][10]. The
 
E·(1−ν)
 a a 1 0 0 0 
harmonic orders with the highest magnitudes are se- (1+ν)·(1−2ν) · , (10)
 0 0 0 b 0 0 
lected for the further study.
 
 0 0 0 0 b 0 
The next step is to calculate the deformation of the 0 0 0 0 0 b
entire structure of the machine. Therefore, a complete
mechanical model of the machine must be generated with
ν 1 − 2ν
consisting of the stator and rotor with their windings, a= and b = . (11)
the shaft, the case, the bearings, and the casing caps. 1−ν 2(1 − ν)
In order to reduce the number of finite elements the ν is Poisson’s ratio and E the elastic modulus. B i is
rotor is simplified and modeled as a cylinder. The sta- the differential matrix for the elements, where B Ti is
the transposed of it. With α1 . . . α4 being the degrees for f = 720 Hz, r = 4 for f = 1040 Hz, and r = 6 for
of freedom of the first-order tetrahedral elements B i f = 620 Hz. Small mechanical orders have the strongest
reads [11]: impact in respect of the deformation amplitude. For
 ∂α1 ∂α4  this reason numbers greater than r = 6 can be neglected
0 0 ··· 0 0
∂x
0
∂α1
0 ···
∂x
0
∂α4
0
in general.
∂y ∂y
∂α1 ∂α4
 
0 0 ··· 0 0
Bi =  ∂z ∂z
 (12)
 
∂α1 ∂α1 ∂α4 ∂α4
0 ··· 0
 ∂y ∂x ∂y ∂x 
∂α1 ∂α1 ∂α4 ∂α4
0 ··· 0
∂z ∂y ∂z ∂y
∂α1 ∂α1 ∂α4 ∂α4
0 ··· 0
∂z ∂x ∂z ∂x

The matrices M , F , D, and R of equations (7) and

(8) are built in an analogue way to K from equation
(9). In order to solve the boundary-value problem of
the deformations entirely a boundary condition must
be regarded. It is necessary to define at least one node
(a) r = 2. (b) r = 4. (c) r = 6.
of the model which is fixed. This is a Dirichlet condi-
tion. Here, the surface nodes of the mounting plate are
selected and fixed in the solving process (see Fig. 6). Figure 9: Mechanical Orders of the Deformation.
Fig. 8 shows exemplarily the strongly emphasized
real part of the deformation of the stator lamination The deformation of the structure of the machine can
and the casing for f = 620 Hz. The emphasizing factor be used for the acoustic simulation described in the fol-
is set to 6,750,000. lowing section. Alternatively the structure-borne sound
can be derived from its results. Here, simulation re-
sults are compared to acceleration measurements per-
formed by the industrial partner. The reference value
is aref = 1 µsm
2 and the level LS is defined by:
a
LS = 20 · log dB . (13)
aref

a is the acceleration of the specific node at the regarded

frequency f , which is derived from the displacement u.
ω = 2πf is the angular frequency. In respect of the
sinusoidal deformation the acceleration vector is defined
by:

−ω 2 · utan
   
atan
(a) Deformation of Stator and Casing. ~a =  arad  =  −ω 2 · urad  with (14)
aaxial −ω 2 · uaxial

∂ 2 u(t) ∂2
2
= 2 û · cos(jωt − ϕ) = −ω 2 · u(t) . (15)
∂t ∂t
ϕ is the phase angle and j 2 = −1. The displacement is
a vector of complex numbers in Cartesian coordinates:
   
x <{x} + j={x}
~u =  y  =  <{y} + j={y}  . (16)
z <{z} + j={z}
In order to provide the displacement vector as local co-
ordinates with tangential, radial, and axial component
the following transformation has to be performed:
   
(b) Deformation of Stator. utan ~u · ~etan
~ulocal =  urad  =  ~u · ~erad 
uaxial ~u · ~eaxial
Figure 8: Real Part of the Deformation for f = 620 Hz.
 
x · ~ex · ~etan + y · ~ey · ~etan + z · ~ez · ~etan
= x · ~ex · ~erad + y · ~ey · ~erad + z · ~ez · ~erad  . (17)
Due to the even number of pole pairs p = 2 and the x · ~ex · ~eaxial + y · ~ey · ~eaxial + z · ~ez · ~eaxial
even number of rotor slots NR = 26 of the induction
machine the mechanical orders of deformation can only The three components of the local coordinate systems
be even numbers as well: r = 0, 2, 4, . . . [12]. Some are equal to those of a global cylindrical coordinate sys-
orders found are depicted in Fig. 9. r = 2 is found tem with the axial component in direction of the shaft,
the radial is normal onto the rotor cylinder and the structural-dynamic model. The resulting model con-
tangential in direction of the angle ϕ [7]. sists of 7,998 triangular shell elements (Fig. 10).
Table 1 shows some results of the structure-borne After the acoustic model has been computed the
sound-simulation. The highest amplitudes are reached sound pressure is estimated in a post-processing step.
for the first rotor-slot harmonic at f26 = 26 · fR = An analysis hemisphere is located in a distance of
520 Hz, the first stator-slot harmonic f36 = 36 · fR = d = 1 m around the machine. The induction machine
720 Hz, f = 940 Hz, and f = 1040 Hz. The level for is positioned in the center of the ground plane. The
the axial component shows the smallest values in all ground plane itself is reverberant. Of course, different
cases. These results suit the acceleration measurements analysis surfaces like spheres and planes are possible.
performed by the industrial partner very well. On the surface of the hemisphere the sound pressure
p from equation (18) is computed. The values of the
sound pressure spread over a wide range. For this rea-
Table 1: Results of the Structure-Borne Sound-Simulation.
son the sound-pressure values are written as a level:
f [Hz] LS,rad [dB] LS,tan [Hz] LS,axial [dB]  
p
100 59.4 58.5 44.0 Lp = 20 · log dB . (19)
p0
420 85.2 83.8 68.4
520 82.6 82.1 66.9 N is the auditory threshold at 1, 000 Hz.
p0 = 2 · 10−5 m 2
620 59.9 64.5 48.5
720 85.4 84.2 68.8
940 88.5 87.5 46.8
1040 82.4 80.5 55.7
1140 67.7 67.0 51.4

ACOUSTIC SIMULATION
The last step of the analysis is the acoustic simula-
tion of the machine. Acoustic noise is a result of the
deformation of the surface of a body. Therefore, only
the deformation of the surfaces has to be taken into
account and the Boundary-Element Method (BEM) is
applied for the acoustic computation. The equation to
be solved reads:
H · p = G · ~v . (18)
p is the complex sound pressure which is the result of Figure 11: Sound-Pressure Distribution for f = 520 Hz.
the acoustic simulation and ~v is the complex velocity
vector of all nodes of the BEM model.
Fig. 11 depicts exemplarily the sound-pressure dis-
tribution for f = 520 Hz. There are some extinction
effects on the top side of the hemisphere. Here, the
maximum sound level reached is about Lp,max = 23 dB.

Table 2: Values for Lp,max for Selected Frequencies.

f [Hz] Lp,max [dB] f [Hz] Lp,max [dB]

100 -16 420 16
520 23 620 9
720 27 940 28
1040 11 1140 9

Table 2 collects the computed maximum sound-

pressure levels for some selected frequencies. Although
the highest force excitation is found for f = 100 Hz
Figure 10: The Acoustic Model of the Machine. (see Fig. 7) the resulting sound pressure on the hemi-
sphere is the lowest. Its value is even below the audi-
tory threshold. The highest levels are reached for the
For the acoustic simulation a third model of the ma- first stator- and rotor-slot harmonics at f = 520 Hz
chine is generated by extracting the surface mesh of the and f = 720 Hz as well as at f = 940 Hz. These
relations suit the structure-borne sound-measurements [11] Ramesohl, I. H., Numerische Geräuschberechnung
mentioned in the previous section by the proportion of von Drehstrom- Klauenpolgeneratoren, Shaker Verlag,
the orders. Aachen, 1999, Dissertation, Institut für Elektrische
Maschinen, RWTH Aachen
III. CONCLUSION [12] Seinsch, H. O., Oberfelderscheinungen in Drehfeld-
maschinen, B. G. Teubner, Stuttgart, 1992
In this paper the simulation of the electromagnetically [13] Schlensok, C., Henneberger, G., “Comparison of Stator
excited structure- and air-borne noise of an induction and Rotor Force Excitation for the Acoustic Simulation
machine with squirrel-cage rotor is described. The of an Induction Machine with Squirrel Cage Rotor,”
acoustic simulation is performed in three main steps 16th International Conference on Electrical Machines,
and requires three different FEM/BEM models of the ICEM, Crakow, Poland, September 2004
geometry of the machine. The structure-borne sound is
derived from an intermediate step. The theory of the
electromagnetic solvers is described as well as that of
the structural-dynamic and the acoustic.
The main aspects which have to be regarded dur-
ing the simulation are pointed out and some example
pictures and tables show qualitative results. Detailed
results will be presented in an additional paper con-
cerning different types of surface-force excitation in the
induction machine [13].
It is now possible to estimate the acoustic behavior
of electrical devices. The structure-borne sound allows
to simulate the deformation of the structure which is
transmitted to other parts of the structure, e.g. the
interior of a car.

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