Investigation of the Suitability of an Electrical Machine Emulation for EMC Component Tests of Drive Inverters

To ensure the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) of drive inverters, EMC tests are supposed to be performed under realistic load conditions. Traditional approaches, as the use of an additional load machine or passive impedance network, are either expensive or provide only a fixed impedance. This paper introduces a new, simple, and affordable approach. The aim is to replace costly and bulky setups with a small-sized, adaptable active load, an electrical machine emulation. To prove the suitability as realistic equivalent load in EMC tests, the emissions and high frequency coupling paths of an existing machine emulation prototype, which is able to provide functional behavior, are investigated. The results provide a promising emulation of the common mode coupling path, but high emissions which require further treatment.