Electric drive manufacturer makes use of simulation software for NVH performance testing and acoustic assessment of its drive trains
E-drive manufacturer, Emotors has taken advantage of test systems from Siemens Xcelerator software to aid in the development and constant improvement of its e-drive systems for hybrids, plug-ins and full electric vehicles (EVs).
Headquartered in Carrières-sous-Poissy, France and formed in 2018, Emotors is an independent e-drive manufacturer. Emotors has created a series of next-generation electric drive (e-drives) units for Stellantis brands like Peugeot, Opel, DS Automobile and Jeep.
A key part of being competitive in the fast changing market of automotive technology is not just about being able to design and prototype next-generation e-drives for EV manufacturers, but also the ability to manufacture them in large numbers. In this respect, the widely established strategy of using platform development enables the automotive supply chain companies to be competitive.
According to Cédric Plasse, CTO, Emotors, the company designs many things digitally but cannot do everything with just these digital models alone. In order to be both quick-to-market and accurate, the digital models need to be calibrated with test measurement data.
“Our NVH test engineers benchmarked all the tools on the market, and it appeared quite quickly that the Siemens tools were the ones that best suited our development needs,” he says.
NVH and Acoustic Challenges
One of Emotors’ many challenges is meeting stringent and changing customer specifications — especially in Noise Vibration Harshness (NVH) and acoustics – when tailoring a whole new range of sounds for EVs, electric drivetrains and e-drives. These include customised interior and exterior soundscapes, enhanced “silent” driving experiences and pedestrian warning systems (PWS) or acoustic vehicle alerting systems (AVAS).
To meet these challenges, Emotors is using a range of Siemens products, including Simcenter Testlab software for test-based engineering, combining high-speed data acquisition with integrated testing, analytics and modelling tools. It is also using Simcenter SCADAS hardware which provides a broad range of test data acquisition methods for multi-physics measurement for acoustic, vibration, and durability engineering. Emotors is also making use of a comprehensive suite of innovative sound and vibration excitation systems designed to measure driving points and structural and vibroacoustic frequency response functions.
To meet its customers’ NVH requirements, the company performs classic experimental modal analysis in Simcenter Testlab. Company engineers extract modal parameters, like frequency, modal shape and damping, which is then provided to the simulation team so that it can confidently predict the NVH behaviour of the Emotors products.
“The Simcenter testing system easily takes us through the main tasks, step-by-step, from the channel setup to final measurement analysis,” explains Bonaventure Ndong Gumedzoe, NVH Testing Manager at Emotors.
Plasse explains that the company is trying to use these Siemens tools across all domains so that they can capitalise on having more people on both the simulation and the test sides of the equation talking to each other.
“This is a good driver to improve communication and we’ll capitalise on this success between Siemens and Emotors as we introduce more motors on the market in the future,” he concludes.
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