Vibration and noise characteristics of an inverter for electric vehicle application

Noise, Vibration & Harshness (NVH) is one of the key parameters associated with comfort of an automobile. An Electric Vehicle (EV) consists of transmission driven by electric motor which ultimately gets its power or current supply from inverter. As per Electric vehicle architecture, motor ranks first followed by transmission and inverter in terms of NVH performance. The function of an inverter is to convert DC current from battery source to 3-phase AC current which goes to electric motor. Torque and speed characteristics of motor is dependent on current and voltage supply from inverter. Hence it is important to assess NVH characteristics of inverter as well. In this paper, vibration and acoustic performance of a standalone EV inverter have been studied by testing it at different vehicle operating conditions. Ideally the output 3 phase AC current from inverter should contain only electrical frequency, but it is observed that AC current contains harmonics in the form of linear combination of electrical frequency and switching frequency. From this study, observations from NVH tests on an EV inverter is highlighted in frequency range where relatively high vibration and noise levels were present.