Optimization of energy efficiency and NVH behaviour of a helical gear unit

The goal of this study is to perform a multi-objective optimization of a gear unit in order to improve its performance in terms of mechanical power losses, gear dynamics and equivalent sound power radiated by the housing. All these key performance indicators are closely related to the gear macro- and micro-geometry parameters. Decision variables chosen are the helix and pressure angles as macro-geometry parameters, and the amount and dimensionless roll length of tip relief as micro-geometry parameters corresponding to gear profile modifications. The multi-objective optimization is carried out under geometric and load capacity constraints using the evolutionary NSGA-II algorithm. Various results, observed in the form of 3D Pareto front confirm that improvements in energy efficiency and vibroacoustic performance are antagonistic. Nevertheless, a significant decrease of mechanical power losses is possible without degrading the vibroacoustic performance much. Otherwise, the correlation between the gear dynamic response and the equivalent radiated sound power (ERP) is partial. The minimization of the equivalent sound power radiated by the housing is not equivalent to the minimization of the gear transmission error fluctuation. These results underline the interest of modelling the whole gear unit to optimize its efficiency and NVH behaviour.