Investigation of gear rattle noise including visualization of vibro-impact regimes

摘要

This paper presents an experimental study of gear rattle noise induced by vibroimpacts between gear teeth. A specific experimental set-up is designed to analyse the nonlinear dynamic behaviour of a spur gear submitted to input velocity fluctuation. The drag torque, the mean drive gear rotational speed, the velocity fluctuation amplitude and frequency are controlled during experiment. The dynamic transmission error is measured thanks to high resolution optical encoders. The originality of the experimental set-up consists in using a high-speed camera in order to visualize the contact zone and to identify the occurrence of successive impacts between gear teeth. The rattle threshold is identified as a function of velocity fluctuation amplitude and frequency for various operating drag torques and mean rotational speeds. Experiments show very good agreement with the theoretical master curve. Once impacts occur, stationary nonlinear gear dynamic response and rattle noise radiated by the mechanical system are investigated. Most of the time, an almost periodic response is observed with 2 impacts per period. One impact between the active flanks alternates with one impact between the reverse flanks. A contact phase between gear teeth is observed after each impact instead of an instantaneous rebound. The number of successive tooth pairs crossing the meshing zone without any contact between gear teeth varies according to the ratio of the excitation frequency to the rotation frequency. Analytical and numerical works performed using a gear rattle model show good agreement with experiments. Finally, sound pressure emitted from the gear pair is measured. The acoustic power imputable to gear rattle is found to be proportional to the total kinetic energy transferred per second to the system by the successive impacts. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.