Software

SIMULIA Manatee

SIMULIA Manatee software provides a collaborative simulation and analysis environment for analyzing the e-NVH (electromagnetic noise and vibration) performance of electric machines and drives from concept to preliminary design phase.

What is Manatee?

Manatee offers a collaborative simulation and analysis environment designed to quickly and accurately optimise the vibro-acoustic performance of electric machines and drives under electromagnetic excitations. Its user-friendly interface has been developed for control, electrical, mechanical and NVH engineers.

Manatee is specialised in the calculation and analysis of electromagnetic noise and vibrations induced by rotating electric machines, including root cause analysis and noise mitigation tools.

Manatee models and algorithms have been successfully applied to more than 200 consulting projects in a wide range of applications: 1-cm to 10-m diameter, 10 to 1,500,000 RPM speed, internal & external rotor, axial and radial flux machines.

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How will Manatee help your business?

All-in-one, user-friendly environment for e-NVH simulation of electric drives:

Fast

Set up your multiphysics simulation with a button click using predefined workflows. Get calculation results within minutes using specific e-NVH models and algorithms.

Accurate

Use state-of-the-art calculation methods throughout the development lifecycle, from concept to preliminary design phase. Include the effect of manufacturing tolerances on carrying out a robust e-NVH ranking of electric machines.

Insightful

Understand the root cause of magnetic noise and vibration using advanced visualization tools. Run “what if” scenarios using powerful parameter sweeps and optimisation tools, easily compare simulation results and explore the whole design space.

Collaborative

Explore the most relevant noise mitigation techniques combining control, electromagnetic, and structural design modifications. Work in parallel with other engineering departments through a user-friendly Graphical User Interface.

Video Introduction

e-NVH virtual prototyping of electric drives using SIMULIA Manatee

SIMULIA Manatee Capabilities

MODSIM helps eliminate the back-and-forth cycles between designers and simulation experts, leading to faster product development.

Predefined simulation templates

Use predefined simulation templates adapted to every design stage and engineering field

Vibro-acoustic design

Include fault & mechanical tolerances for a robust vibro-acoustic design

Noise and vibration testing

Find the root cause of noise and vibration in terms of structural modes and excitation forces

Campbell diagrams

Run offline Campbell diagrams of magnetic forces to compare different e-machines

Noise mitigation technique

Choose and optimise the most adapted magnetic, control or mechanical noise mitigation technique

Unit-wave Maxwell excitations

Import a modal basis and analyse its response to unit-wave Maxwell excitations without running magnetic calculations

Magnetic order tracking

Separate the contribution of different magnetic orders with the automatic order tracking analysis

Parameter sweeps

Run parameter sweeps on electrical machine design parameters

e-NVH calculations

Run e-NVH calculations at all speed and load levels

Electromagnetic vibration synthesis

Combine structural calculations with operational loads using electromagnetic vibration synthesis

Listen & Spectrograms

Analyse variable speed e-NVH effects with spectrograms and listen to your e-machine sound

Compare results

Compare different simulation results and find the best electromagnetic and vibro-acoustic trade-offs

"Compared to physical prototyping, we can deliver data-based recommendations 85% quicker. Our customers now benefit from a much faster and far easier experience."

Markku Leskelä, Vice President of Research and Product Development
Metsä Board

"3DEXPERIENCE is a game changer for us as we're able to design and iterate at speed, bringing all our expertise and domains together in one place to come up with the best solutions. It allows us to move and innovate faster."

Jim Rhoné, Chief Product Officerr
Interstellar Lab

SIMULIA Manatee Features

Virtual prototyping of electric drives requires an efficient multiphysic workflow to simulate e-NVH metrics

Motor stator assembly
Electrical Engineers

NVH Simulation of Electric Machines for Electrical Engineers

Electrical engineers can assess and reduce magnetic noise and vibrations at different design stages using Manatee software.

In the early design stage, electrical engineers can compare different slot/pole combinations and electric machine topologies. They can estimate the risk of resonances using the frequency signature of magnetic forces provided by Magnetic Force Signature Analysis (MFSA).

Once the electrical machines are quickly set up under the Manatee environment, electrical engineers can either compute or import air gap flux. They can study the influence of electromagnetic design parameters on the sound power level radiated by the stator yoke using quick NVH models by running parameter sweeps or optimisations. They can analyse the trade-offs between electromagnetic performances and NVH performances. In the detailed design phase, they can also assess the impact of current harmonics on e-NVH.

Mechanical Engineers

NVH Simulation of Electric Machines for Mechanical Engineers

Mechanical engineers can assess and reduce magnetic noise and vibrations at different design stages using Manatee software.

By importing modal bases from 3D FEA software, mechanical engineers can iterate on mechanical integration of the electric motor, stiffening some parts or moving some resonances at other operating points. Spectrograms and load case contribution plots ease the results analysis and the identification of which modes are excited by magnetic excitations.

Mechanical engineers can also study the impact of 3D eccentricity effects on noise and vibration to assess design robustness.

Testing operational forces
Manatee results
Acoustical Engineers

NVH Simulation of Electric Machines for Acoustical Engineers

Acoustical engineers can assess and reduce magnetic noise and vibrations at different design stages using Manatee software.

They can assess sound pressure and sound power levels based on fast acoustic models.

Acoustical engineers can also import external noise sources such as gear noise, to get a global estimation of “magnetic noise” + “external noise source”.

In addition, acoustical engineers can analyse sound quality metrics.

SIMULIA Manatee

SIMULIA Manatee Industry Application Examples

Easy to use software which will adapt to your business process

Consumer Goods

Problem: A new manufacturing process for BLDC motor fans results in a higher eccentricity and uneven airgap. This may degrade sound quality, and engineers would like to estimate this without running NVH tests.

Solution: Manatee simulation is set up and run to estimate quickly the impact of asymmetries on acoustic noise due to electromagnetic excitations. This allows mechanical engineers to specify mechanical tolerances in line with NVH requirements.

Naval

Problem: A new electric propulsion unit is designed to comply with Silent Class ship. Induction motor structure-borne noise must be evaluated, but magnetic force calculation requires time-consuming transient FEA simulation by electrical engineers.

Solution: The Manatee quick permeance/mmf model is used to calculate magnetic forces. The resulting structure-borne noise is obtained with a vibration synthesis algorithm. Compliance with standards is easily checked with third octave analysis.

ENERGY

Problem: A tonal noise issue is identified during factory acceptance tests of a wind turbine generator. Design engineers want to understand what is causing this sound and to reduce it.

Solution: Manatee simulation allows for identifying the modes and magnetic forces responsible for high tonality. Control engineers then run a simulation to confirm the efficiency of the harmonic current injection technique.

Industrial Components

Problem: The end customer rejected the prototype of an industrial pump because it sounded louder than its competitor. The motor pump designer wants to improve the pump’s sound signature.

Solution: Manatee helps to analyse test data, confirm the noise issue’s magnetic origin, and set clear noise reduction targets using sound synthesis features. Acoustic engineers then study the effect of moving a natural frequency to meet the new targets.

AUTOMOTIVE

Problem: During the electromagnetic design of an IPMSM traction motor for the electric powertrain, electrical engineers want to study the NVH impact of the skew pattern. This calculation is taking days in a general-purpose FEA software.

Solution: With Manatee, the effect of the rotor skew pattern on average torque, torque ripple and magnetic noise is quickly calculated on whole torque speed plane, providing clear guidance to electromagnetic engineers.

Railway

Problem: An initial electrical design of a squirrel-cage induction motor is carried out for a light rail vehicle application. The sound power level has to fulfill IEC 60034 noise limits at variable speed, which requires a massive number of multiphysics calculations.

Solution: Electrical and mechanical engineers quickly perform e-NVH calculations under Manatee, showing the presence of a large slotting resonance. A parameter sweep on the rotor slot number achieves 15 dB noise reduction with the same torque level.