Active gear pair vibration control during non-static load and speed with an electronically commutated motor as actuator

Abstract:
This paper presents a method to reduce gear mesh noise in an electric drive train. The control scheme uses a narrow-band adaptive FIR filter to control the amplitude and phase of motor torque ripples at gear mesh frequency and its harmonics. In contrast to previous works this paper also considers the operation at different loads as well as non-static modes of operation with varying load and speed. The key aspect to achieve this is the introduction of a load and speed dependent phase function and a constant amplitude gain that jointly represent the secondary path transfer function of the active vibration controller. The phase function is identified in advance with a torque ripple frequency sweep at different loads. Within the scope of this paper, simulations with a nonlinear gear pair model as well as test bench experiments have successfully been carried out for proof of concept. Results on the test bench showed a reduction of airborne sound at the first and second gear mesh frequency of up to 14 dB and 19 dB respectively while the same controller is able to handle load and speed changes.