Evaluation of Switching Effect on Acoustic Noise of an Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor for a Traction Application

In recent years, the automotive industry has shown growing interest in the vibroacoustic characteristics of electric propulsion motors. Investigation of such characteristics can open avenues for motor design optimization and refined control strategies to mitigate vibration and acoustic noise in an electric motor. This article presents a comprehensive vibroacoustic analysis of a propulsion interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM) under various current excitations generated by the power converter in combination with three different modulation schemes. To evaluate the switching effect from the inverter drive on motor noise, different simulations and processes are performed in ANSYS Workbench and MATLAB/Simulink. The multi-physics noise and vibration workflow, and sampling requirements used for the study are also presented. The simulation results, presented as equivalent radiated power (ERP) waterfall diagrams, show diverse acoustic noise signatures for the different types of excitation currents.