How does a transformer make clicking sounds when being powered ON or when it is bucking/boosting voltages, without having any moving parts inside?
In: 5
Well, because depending on how you want to think about it they do have moving parts. Buck/boost converters use coils around a ferrous material, transformers are slightly different but similar. When current flows through it it creates a magnetic field which exerts a small amount of force. This usually causes the parts to “move a bit”. The mosfet or silicon doing the switching may also make some noise, that I don’t have an explanation for. Transformers in substations hum at the sound of the AC frequency of the main lines, in the US this is 60hz. For a buck/boost controller I’m guessing we hear an octave (is that the right term?) because they usually operate 10’a or 100’s of kHz which we can’t hear.
A buck/boost controller won’t have literal moving parts like a relay because the switching speeds are way too high.
Well, because depending on how you want to think about it they do have moving parts. Buck/boost converters use coils around a ferrous material, transformers are slightly different but similar. When current flows through it it creates a magnetic field which exerts a small amount of force. This usually causes the parts to “move a bit”. The mosfet or silicon doing the switching may also make some noise, that I don’t have an explanation for. Transformers in substations hum at the sound of the AC frequency of the main lines, in the US this is 60hz. For a buck/boost controller I’m guessing we hear an octave (is that the right term?) because they usually operate 10’a or 100’s of kHz which we can’t hear.
A buck/boost controller won’t have literal moving parts like a relay because the switching speeds are way too high.
MRI scanners are notoriously loud despite not having moving parts other than the table. The commonality here is magnetic coils.
When you run a current through a coil, it creates a magnetic field, which pulls on some metals and any other magnetic coil in the system. Since both MRI scanners and transformers use more than one magnetic coil, they pull on each other. This moves them a bit in place, leading to vibrations the same way striking an object does.
I was making robot transformer sounds in my head and thinking that’s a lot of parts moving. Then I realized you meant electrical coil transformer
MRI scanners are notoriously loud despite not having moving parts other than the table. The commonality here is magnetic coils.
When you run a current through a coil, it creates a magnetic field, which pulls on some metals and any other magnetic coil in the system. Since both MRI scanners and transformers use more than one magnetic coil, they pull on each other. This moves them a bit in place, leading to vibrations the same way striking an object does.
I was making robot transformer sounds in my head and thinking that’s a lot of parts moving. Then I realized you meant electrical coil transformer
Magnetostriction.
In the presense of a concentrated magnetic field, materials tend to change shape for a brief moment. Depending on how everything is configured, something will either rub or hit on another component and…click.
Edit.
Even if there is nothing to hit or rub on each other, Depending on the frequency of the field, it can cause a hum can be heard.
I was making robot transformer sounds in my head and thinking that’s a lot of parts moving. Then I realized you meant electrical coil transformer
Magnetostriction.
In the presense of a concentrated magnetic field, materials tend to change shape for a brief moment. Depending on how everything is configured, something will either rub or hit on another component and…click.
Edit.
Even if there is nothing to hit or rub on each other, Depending on the frequency of the field, it can cause a hum can be heard.
Magnetostriction.
In the presense of a concentrated magnetic field, materials tend to change shape for a brief moment. Depending on how everything is configured, something will either rub or hit on another component and…click.
Edit.
Even if there is nothing to hit or rub on each other, Depending on the frequency of the field, it can cause a hum can be heard.
Latest Answers