Acoustic noise and vibration of rotating electric machines

In recent years, with the growing public awareness of acoustic noise and current work towards International and British Standards concerned with noise from rotating electric machines, work on rotating-machine noise has progressed, from attempts at a qualitative explanation of the more obvious components of machine noise, towards the prediction of the complete acoustic spectrum from the design data. This paper describes the ways, common to all machines, in which noise is produced by mechanical, magnetic and aerodynamic sources, and reviews methods used to determine the acoustic output and vibration of particular types of machine. The measurement and analysis of machine noise is described, and some general rules for producing quiet machines are given. A bibliography of the main work on machine noise is given.