Gear Noise and Vibration A Literature Survey

This paper is a survey of the literature on gear noise and vibration. It is divided into three parts, “Transmission error”, “Dynamic models” and “Noise and vibration measurement”. Transmission error (TE) is considered to be an important excitation mechanism for gear noise and vibration. The definition of transmission error is “The difference between the actual position of the output gear and the position it would occupy if the gear drive were perfectly conjugate”. Dynamic models of the system consisting of gears, shafts, bearings and gearbox casing are useful in order to understand and predict the dynamical behaviour of a gearbox. Noise and vibration measurement and signal analysis are important tools when experimentally investigating gear noise because gears create noise at specific frequencies, related to number of teeth and the rotational speed of the gear.