Microsyst Technol (2005) 11: 559564 DOI 10.

1007/s00542-005-0554-0

T E C H N I C A L P A PE R

H. Ota T. Sato C. Baup J. Okamoto M. Nagai K. Nagahashi

A method for calculating the electromagnetic noise of a motor-driven thin blade fan

Received: 25 June 2003 / Accepted: 29 October 2003 / Published online: 31 May 2005 Springer-Verlag 2005

Abstract An urgent need exists to develop a method of predicting the noise level of a blade fan attached to a motor shaft. To satisfy this requirement, we developed a method for calculating the sound generated when a rotating blade is excited by the torque pulsation of a motor. The sound pressure values calculated by the new method for a rotating blade were found to correspond well with experimentally measured ones.

V vi /i q x xr

Velocity distribution of sound radiator (m/s); Amplitude of velocity at ith node (m/s); Phase of velocity at ith node (rad); Mass density (kg/m3); Angular frequency (rad/s); Angular velocity of rotating radiator (rad/s);

List of symbols ds Reference small area (m2); j Imaginary unit; k Free eld wave number of planewave (1/m); P Field point (m); p Sound pressure level (Pa); q Angle of sound radiator (rad); R Observed radius (m); r Distance from reference small area ds (m); ri Instantaneous distance from ith node to P (m); S Area of sound radiator (m2);
H. Ota (&) Applied Systems Engineering, Graduate School of Tokyo Denki University, Ishizaka, Hatoyama, Hiki-Gun, 350-0394 Saitama, Japan E-mail: hiroki@satolab.n.dendai.ac.jp Tel.: +81-49-2962911 Fax: +81-49-2966544 T. Sato Department of Intelligent Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Denki University, Ishizaka, Hatoyama, Hiki-Gun, 350-0394 Saitama, Japan C. Baup rieure de Me canique et des Microtechniques, Ecole Nationale Supe 25030 Besancon, France J. Okamoto M. Nagai K. Nagahashi Shimizu Works, Hitachi Air Conditioning Systems Co., Ltd., Japan

1 Introduction
A method for predicting the electromagnetic noise of a thin blade fan driven by an electric motor has been developed. Electric motors are used as actuators in various kinds of machinery. Vibrating motions and noise in the machinery arise when the excitation forces of electric motors act on elastic parts of machinery. For instance, an air conditioner has a fan structure attached to the motor shaft. The thin blade fan vibrates and radiates electromagnetic noise when the torque pulsation acts on the rotating blades. A number of investigators have studied vibration and noise caused by motors (Boldea et al. 1999; Craggs 1993; Ishibashi et al. 1998; Iwata et al. 1991; Kimball and Alger 1924; Matsubara et al. 1998; Morrill 1929; Neves et al. 2000; Roy et al. 1996; Shiohata et al. 1998; Timar 1992; Wang and Lai 1999; Yokozuka 1971). In these studies, many investigators dealt with the vibrations and noise in many kinds of motors. Moreover, several methods for reducing the noise and analyzing the dynamic behavior of fan have been proposed (Hagiwara et al. 1984; Honda et al. 1993; Otsuka and Iwamura 1986). We propose a new noise calculation method for rotating blades that are excited by the torque pulsation of a capacitor motor. The calculation method is composed of two main modules, one for analyzing the vibration response of the blades, and one for calculating the electromagnetic noise of a rotating blade.

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In the analyzing module, the vibration response of a rotating thin blade is analyzed using both torque pulsation and the mesh model of the blade. To calculate the motors torque pulsation, we employed an equivalent electric circuit corresponding to the motor. The calculated torque pulsation was used to obtain the vibration response. In measuring the vibration response at various points along the length of the rotating blade, we found that the calculation and experimental results agreed well for each point. This calculation module for electromagnetic noise calculates the sound eld caused by sound radiated from the rotating blade excited by the torque pulsation of the motor. It was found that the sound pressure values calculated by the new calculation method for a rotating blade corresponded well with experimentally measured ones.

Fig. 1 Experimental device

2 Experimental device
2.1 Specications of experimental device The motor referred to in this paper is a capacitor motor with the specications shown in Table 1. The main part of the testing system, shown schematically in Fig. 1, primarily consists of a motor, a four-bladed fan, and a high-stiness block. The high-stiness block is a steel block 220x220x220 mm in size and 83 kg in mass; its natural frequency is 6.7 kHz. A foam rubber was inserted under the block to prevent vibration from the oor from being transmitted to the motor and blades. The four-bladed fan was attached to the motor shaft. Each blade is an aluminum plate 300x80x3 mm in size. The motor rotates at a slow speed of 210 rpm because of the air resistance of this large fan. An accelerometer and slip ring were used to measure the vibration response of a rotating blade. 2.2 Measurement device for radiated noise The system for measuring the sound pressure, shown schematically in Fig. 2, was set up in a semi-anechoic chamber. The blade rotates at a distance of 645 mm

above the oor to prevent noise from the oor from inuencing the results. The points evaluated lie at a distance of 210 mm above the blade. 2.3 Characteristics of radiated noise Figure 3 shows the frequency response of the sound pressure produced by the testing system. In this gure, the microphone is set up at a radius of 200 mm from the rotating center. Many frequency components are shown in this gure, with the blade passage frequency causing a peak frequency component at 14 Hz. The peak frequency components at 100 Hz and 200 Hz are the result of electromagnetic noise caused by torque pulsation.

3 Calculation method for radiated noise

3.1 Basic formula (Hori 1979; Mechel 2002) Figure 4 shows the analytical model of radiated sound. The sound pressure p of a eld point P caused by sound radiated from a plane radiator with area S and velocity distribution V(x,y) in an innite bae wall can be evaluated with the following equation. Z jxq V x; y ejkr p ds 1 2p S r where r is the distance from a reference point d s on the radiator to the eld point P, x is angular frequency, q is mass density, and k is the free eld wave number of a plane wave. 3.2 Calculation method for radiated electromagnetic noise from a rotating blade We developed a calculation method when a plane radiator rotates. Figure 5 represents the plane radiator

Table 1 Motor specications Motor type Rated power Power supply frequency Power supply voltage Capacitor Pole Stator slot Rotor slot Rotation speed (with four-bladed fan) Capacitor motor 140 W 50 Hz AC 150 V 8 lF 6 24 34 210 rpm

561 Fig. 2 Sound measurement system

rotating about the z-axis with angular velocity xr. In this method, we can calculate sound pressure p(t) from the rotating blade based on Eq. (1). The value of sound pressure p(t) at xed eld point P is calculated by p t t q xr
n xq X vi dsi cosxt /i 2p i1 ri t

result, in the calculation of the electromagnetic noise component it may be assumed that acoustic directivity at 100 Hz is negligible.

2 3

4 Sound eld analysis of rotating blade

4.1 Modeling To analyze vibration response, we created a mesh model of a blade. The natural frequencies and modes of the mesh model were determined by using the program MSC/NASTRAN. At the same time, experimental modal analysis of the blade was performed. Table 2 lists the measured and calculated natural frequency values for ve dierent vibration modes. For each mode the measured and calculated values were in agreement.

where, vi= the amplitude of the velocity at the ith node /i= the phase of the velocity at the ith node q= angle of plane radiator The vibration response vi and its phase /i of the rotating blade can be calculated by using the nite-element method (FEM). The directivity factor can be calculated by both the size of sound radiator and the point sources frequency (Hori 1979). At 100 Hz, the wave length is about 3.4 m and the size of the blade is comparatively small. As a

Fig. 3 Noise of fan (R=200 mm)

Fig. 4 Basic model of radiated sound

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Fig. 6 Examples of vibration mode

Fig. 5 Rotating model of sound radiator

Figure 6 shows examples of measured and FEM calculated vibration modes; agreement between the two was obtained in this case as well. As a result, we can conclude that the thin blade was modeled suciently well using the mesh model. 4.2 Vibration response Acceleration response of the blade excited by the motor torque pulsation was determined by using the mesh model. Only the 100 Hz frequency component, at which the fundamental component of torque pulsation occurs, was used in this calculation. The fundamental component of torque pulsation can be calculated by using an equivalent electric circuit analysis (Kimball and Alger 1924; Morrill 1929; Yokozuka 1971). Figure 7 shows both the calculated and experimentally measured vibration responses. The horizontal axis shows the points along the blade length at which vibration response was measured. The solid line and solid circles are measured accelerations, and the gray line is the equivalent calculated values. It is clear that both lines match well from beginning to end. 4.3 Sound eld analysis In the experimental measurement of electromagnetic noise, the measured value consists of the sound radiated
Table 2 Natural frequency Mode 1 2 3 4 5 Experiment(Hz) 23.3 72 150 189 432 FEM(Hz) 25 77.3 154 181 434

from the rotating blades and the motor. As the fourbladed fan is symmetrical about the rotating axis, the sound radiated from each blade is canceled at its rotating center. To measure only the sound from the motor, we measured sound on the rotating center (R=0 mm). We used Eq.(2) to analyze the sound eld caused by sound radiated from the thin blades excited by the torque pulsation. In this analysis, we used previously obtained data of the vibration response of blades excited by torque pulsation and the experimentally measured sound of a motor. Figure 8 shows the calculated and measured time waveform of the electromagnetic noise at evaluated radiuses of 0, 200 and 300 mm. As can be seen in this gure, the closer the evaluated point is to the rotating center, the larger is the inuence of the electromagnetic noise of the motor. Put the other way, the farther the evaluated point is from the rotating center, the larger is the inuence of noise radiated from the rotating blades. These results show that there is a beat of time waveform caused by the blades rotation when the measurement radius was increased from 0 mm to 200 mm to 300 mm. The calculation results are in good agreement with the measured values and their characteristics. Figure 9 shows both the calculated and measured sound pressure level (SPL) of the electromagnetic noise. The horizontal axis shows the radius from the rotating center of the four-bladed fan, shown schematically un-

Fig. 7 Vibration response of blade

563 Fig. 8 Electromagnetic noise of rotating blade fan

Fig. 9 Sound pressure level of rotating blade fan

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der the graph. The solid circles are measured SPL, and the solid line is the calculated values of SPL. Additionally, the blade acceleration amplitude is represented as light or dark, where dark means low acceleration. The acceleration amplitude was reected in the SPL at each evaluated point as shown in this gure. It is clear that both dots and line match well from beginning to end. Therefore, we can conclude that calculating the torque pulsation using the equivalent circuit allows us to accurately determine the electromagnetic noise of the rotating blade.

5 Conclusion
We developed a method for calculating the electromagnetic noise of a rotating thin blade fan driven by an electric motor. With this method, we successfully obtained the vibration response of a thin blade excited by torque pulsation. The calculated electromagnetic noise values of a rotating blade fan agreed well with experimentally measured ones.

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