Dynamic modeling for enhanced acoustic comfort in agricultural machinery: NVH digital twin for tractor pump drive

In the domain of agricultural machinery, ensuring user acoustic comfort is a fundamental requirement, given the prolonged hours operators spend on tractors. In this regard, geared transmission systems represent one of the major sources of noise and vibrations as they can produce high frequency whine noise due to their internal excitation. Gear whine noise is mainly caused by transmission errors variation, in fact, this phenomenon is related to gear manufacturing errors, misalignment and time-varying mesh stiffness. The aim of this paper is to explore the pivotal role of macro and microgeometry in minimizing whine noise emission during gear operation. By emphasizing the substantial impact of transmission error on noise generation, the research activity underscores the relevance of a numerical vibroacoustic methodology, experimentally validated, for the estimation and control of the vibratory level of a geartrain employed on agricultural equipment.