EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF NUMERICAL MODELS TO REPRESENT THE STIFFNESS OF LAMINATED ROTOR CORES IN ELECTRICAL MACHINES

Usually, electrical machines have a metallic cylinder made up of a compacted stack of thin metal plates (referred as laminated core) assembled with an interference fit on the shaft. The laminated structure is required to improve the electrical performance of the machine and, besides adding inertia, also enhances the stiffness of the system. Inadequate characterization of this element may lead to errors when assessing the dynamic behavior of the rotor. The aim of this work was therefore to evaluate three beam models used to represent the laminated core of rotating electrical machines. The following finite element beam models are analysed: (i) an "equivalent diameter model", (ii) an "unbranched model" and (iii) a "branched model". To validate the numerical models, experiments are performed with nine different electrical rotors so that the first non-rotating natural frequencies and corresponding vibration modes in a free-free support condition are obtained experimentally. The models are evaluated by comparing the natural frequencies and corresponding vibration mode shapes obtained experimentally with those obtained numerically. Finally, a critical discussion of the behavior of the beam models studied is presented. The results show that for the majority of the rotors tested, the "branched model" is the most suitable