Investigation of Sound and Vibration Behavior of Cylindrical Gears

As technology progresses, the demands placed on drive trains are continuously increasing. This also includes the vibration behavior and the acoustic performance of gearboxes. Especially when electric motors are used for propulsion and thus masking by an internal combustion engine or a similar driving machine vanishes, the optimization of the noise characteristics contribute as an important aspect to a successful gear design. Since the main noise originates from the characteristic power transmission process of the mating gear teeth, the transfer path of the structure-borne sound is a complex composition of gear mesh, shafts, bearings and housing. As a result, the acoustic performance depends on various influencing factors and hence a deep understanding of the dynamic interactions in a gearbox is required for optimization purposes. A suitable calculation strategy highly supports production development by identifying key influencing factors. In this context, the investigation of the dynamic behavior of a gearbox concept with respect to its acoustic performance is presented in this article.