An Analytical Method to Reduce Gear Whine Noise, Including Validation with Test Data

As vehicle overall noise levels are reducing, gear whine is becoming increasingly more of a nuisance.

This paper illustrates a numerical method of predicting the Transmission Error (TE) at a gear mesh. It outlines a technique which applies an advanced genetic algorithm to optimise the gear tooth micro-geometry to minimise the Transmission Error (TE) and illustrates how the design can be made insensitive to manufacturing tolerances.

A numerical simulation of the gearbox model is presented, which predicts the dynamic behaviour of a gearbox system, indicating modeshapes, frequencies and forces at the bearings.

Finally, the numerical methods are verified by experimental techniques in a design case study, to reduce the gear whine of a vehicle transmission.