Application of an e-machine emulator for power converter tests in the development of electric drives

In the development and validation of electric drives developers are facing great challenges. The existing facilities for testing power electronics do not always fit the desired requirements. In this paper a test bench including an electric machine emulator will be presented, which physically reproduce the power flow of a permanent magnet synchronous motor. The core of the e-machine emulator is a real-time flux based e-machine model that contains the characteristics of the desired machine. Furthermore, the performance of an e-machine emulator in comparison to a dyno test bench and the benefits for the development of alternative propulsion has been investigated. In the investigation could be shown, that the flux deviations at stationary workpoints are under 1% in the area of constant torque.