Small laboratory electric motor test rig for aircraft applications

Abstract

The electrification of the transportation sector is a suitable solution which offers the opportunity for a more sustainable and climate-friendly future. Current studies show that greenhouse gas emissions increase and the aviation sector is one of the key sources. Thus, the need for new low-emission technologies becomes more important. One key component of such propulsion systems is the electric motor as the energy transformer from electrical to mechanical power. In order to enable first laboratory-scale experiments on electric machines, a small electric motor test rig has been built at the DLR Institute of Electrified Aero Engines. The test rig will be used for vibroacoustic investigations of small-scale electric motors that could, for example, be used in distributed electric propulsion systems. In the paper, the design and set up of the test rig and the available measurement techniques, including microphone array technology, sound intensity probes, near-field and far-field microphones, vibration sensors and laser scanning microscopy, are explained. In addition, first results are presented that show the acoustic and vibrational characteristics of a radial flux electric machine at different load conditions.