METHOD OF MEASUREMENT OF THE NATURAL FREQUENCIES AND DAMPING FACTORS OF PERMANENT-MAGNET SYNCHRONOUS MACHINES

The vibratory behaviour of permanent magnet synchronous machines depends on the modal characteristics of the mechanical structure of their stator (natural frequencies, damping factors, modal shapes). In this paper, a novel method, to determine experimentally these characteristics, is presented. First, the classical technics used to measure the modal characteristics are presented. A theoretical study establishes a relation between the supply currents and the vibrations deriving from electromagnetic phenomena. According to this study, an experimental method, which enables to determine the natural frequencies and the damping factors of the stator mechanic structure, is proposed: it is carried out with the rotor at standstill and uses the forces produced by the supply currents as excitation sources for the mechanical structure. In order to validate the proposed method, it is brought into work on an experimental bench and the results are compared to the ones obtained from the classical method using hammer excitations.