Identification and Reduction of Gear Whine Noise of the Axle System in a Passenger Van

This paper presents practical work on the reduction of gear whine noise. In order to identify the source of the gear whine noise, transfer paths are searched and analyzed by operational deflection shape analysis and experimental modal analysis. It was found that gear whine noise has an air-borne noise path instead of structure-borne noise path. The main sources of air- borne noise were the two global modes caused by the resonance of an axle system. These modes created a vibro-acoustic noise problem. Vibro-acoustic noise can be reduced by controlling the vibration of the noise source. The vibration of noise source is controlled by the modification of structure to avoid the resonance or to reduce the excitation force. In the study, the excitation force of the axle system is attenuated by changing the tooth profile of the hypoid gear. The modification of the tooth profile yields a reduction of transmission error, which is correlated to the gear whine noise. Finally, whine noise is reduced up to 10dBA.