Hindawi Publishing Corporation

Mathematical Problems in Engineering

Volume 2013, Article ID 875929, 5 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/875929

Research Article
Noise Source Identification of a Ring-Plate Cycloid Reducer
Based on Coherence Analysis

Bing Yang1 and Yan Liu2

1
School of Mechanical Engineering, Dalian Jiaotong University, Dalian 116028, China
2
School of Traffic and Transportation Engineering, Dalian Jiaotong University, Dalian 116028, China

Correspondence should be addressed to Bing Yang; yangbing djtu@126.com

Received 16 November 2012; Revised 8 March 2013; Accepted 8 March 2013

Academic Editor: Valentina E. Balas

Copyright 2013 B. Yang and Y. Liu. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

A ring-plate-type cycloid speed reducer is one of the most important reducers owing to its low volume, compactness, smooth
and high performance, and high reliability. The vibration and noise tests of the reducer prototype are completed using the HEAD
acoustics multichannel noise test and analysis system. The characteristics of the vibration and noise are obtained based on coherence
analysis and the noise sources are identified. The conclusions provide the bases for further noise research and control of the ring-
plate-type cycloid reducer.

1. Introduction and analysis system. The characteristics of the vibration and

Speed reducers are used in various fields for the purposes
of speed and torque conversion. Speed reducers have many
kinds such as worm reducer, crane reducer, cycloid reducer,
planetary gear reducer, and ring-plate-type reducer. A ring-
plate-type cycloid speed reducer is one of the most impor-
tant reducers owing to its low volume, smooth and high
performance, and high reliability. The internal transmission
structure of the ring-plate-type cycloid speed reducer is
shown in Figure 1 [13]. The input shaft equipped with a
driving involute gear is supported by the reducer. Two driven
gears are mounted on two driven cranks. Four ring plates
with pin gears are connected to the two driven cranks. Two
cranks have the same length. Thus, ring plate and two cranks
become a parallel four-bar mechanism. When the input shaft
rotates, it causes the two cranks to rotate. The four ring plates
mounted to the cranks rotate. Then the cycloidal gear rotates.
The output shaft rotates since the cycloidal gear is mounted
to the output shaft [4].
At present, the application of the reducer is limited to
some extent because of the noise level. So, it has practical
significance to research the vibration and noise of the reducer
[510]. The vibration and noise tests of the reducer are
completed using the HEAD acoustics multichannel noise test
noise are obtained based on coherence analysis and the noise
sources of the double crank ring-plate-type pin-cycloid gear
reducer are identified.
2. Noise Source Identification Methods
Mechanical equipment noise control is mainly in three
areas: sound source control, transmission route control, and
recipient protection. And the control of the noise source is
the most fundamental and effective method. The premise
is identifying the main sources of the equipment [1113].
There are many noise source identification methods such as
subjective evaluation, respectively run, and lead cover. The
following are frequency spectrum and coherence analysis
methods.
2.1. Frequency Spectrum. The data measured are time-do-
main signal in general. In order to obtain the frequency char-
acteristics of the noise source, frequency spectrum analysis is
often made. The frequency spectrum can be generated via a
Fourier transform of the signal, into a single harmonic com-
ponent to study, to thereby obtain the frequency structure of
the signal, and the amplitude and phase information of the
harmonic and the resulting are usually presented as frequency
2 Mathematical Problems in Engineering

B
5 C

1 3

A D
4
Figure 3: Test points position.

(1) Crank (4) Base 3. Vibration and Noise Tests

(2) Ring plate (5) Cycloidal gear
(3) Crank
3.1. Test Equipment. The vibration and noise tests of the
reducer prototype are completed using the HEAD acoustics
Figure 1: Crank ring-plate-type cycloid speed reducer. test and analysis system in an ordinary laboratory. The HEAD
acoustics multichannel noise test and analysis system is
selected for the measurement. The system is made of SQLab
Ring-plate-type cycloid gear Sensors SQLab II Artemis
II data acquisition recorder, G. R. A. S. microphones and
reducer KISTLER acceleration sensors, and Artemis software. The
Figure 2: Signal collection and analysis process. data collection and analysis process of the HEAD acoustics
multichannel noise test and analysis system is shown in
Figure 2. The signals are collected from reducer through
sensors to the front end. The analog signal is converted into
spectrum diagrams [1416]. The peak values of the frequency a digital signal through SQLab. At last, the digital signals
spectrum diagrams are closely but not necessarily related to are analyzed by Artemis software with different analysis
the main source of noise. A peak in the noise and vibration methods.
frequency spectrum diagram may come from several noise
sources, and sometimes a noise source may produce more 3.2. Test Point Position. The ring-plate cycloid reducer noise
than one peak in the frequency spectrum diagram. comes mainly from structural noise. Structural noise is
generated by the imbalance, the mechanical collision, and
2.2. Coherence Analysis. A coherence function is the descrip- structural resonance and propagates to the space propagation
tion of the relevance of the two signals in a system [17, 18]. Let through the shaft, the bearing, and the block. Structural noise
() and () be the signals; the Autocorrelation function is mainly comes from the following two sections. The first,
defined as section, machinery parts produces sound when they rotate.
Such as shaft, gear, motor and so on. The other section comes
() = [ ( + ) ()] . (1) from components engagement and sound.
The main noise sources of the ring-plate cycloid reducer
The cross-correlation function is defined as are the following aspects through experiences: (1) the noise
generated by ring plates and cycloidal gear when they
() = [ ( + ) ()] . (2) mesh, (2) the noise generated by involute spur gears when
they mesh, (3) the noise caused by driving motor, and
The correlation coefficient between () and () can be (4) the noise caused unbalanced installation of ring plates.
expressed as According to the possible noise sources, three vibration test
points and one noise test point were positioned in the test
procedure Figure 3. The location of the test points is shown in
=0 () ()
= 0.5
. (3) Figure 4. The detailed information of test points is shown in
[ 2 2
=0 () =0 ()] Table 1.

The inputs of a system are the noise or vibration; the only 4. Noise Source Identification
linear output is that (). () is the sum of the linear outputs.
The coherence function between an input and the output can The double-crank four ring-plate-type cycloid reducer inter-
be expressed as nal-noise-source-related parameters can be expressed as
2
()
2 () = . (4) = , (5)
() ()
Mathematical Problems in Engineering 3

Table 1: Test point location explanation. 90

80
Point
Test point location 70
name
60

SPL (dB)
Vibration test point, near the input shaft,
1 50
on the surface of the reducer
40
Vibration test point, near the cycloid gear,
2 30
on the surface of the reducer
20
Vibration test point, near the output
3 10
shaft, on the surface of the reducer
0
Noise test point, 1 meter above the
5 104 584 1064 1544 2024 2504 2984
reducer
Frequency (Hz)

1 () 1 () Figure 6: SPL of test point 5.

2 () 2 () 80
82
84

Autocorrelation (dB)
3 () 3 () (SPL) 86
88
90
1 () 1 () 92
94
96
() () 98
100
Figure 4: Multi-input single-output linear system. 0 480 960 1440 1920 2400 2880
Frequency (Hz)
0.025
Figure 7: Autocorrelation of test point 1.
Vibration acceleration (g)

0.02
84
0.015
86
Autocorrelation (dB)

0.01 88
90
0.005
92
0 94
3 296 589 882 1175 1468 1761 2054 2347 2640 2933
96
Frequency (Hz)
98
Figure 5: Vibration acceleration of test point 1. 0 480 960 1440 1920 2400 2880
Frequency (Hz)

Figure 8: Autocorrelation of test point 2.

where is the main frequency and is the shaft frequency,
and the shaft frequency can be expressed as

collected synchronously through the front end. The collected

= ,
60
where is the rotation speed of the gears.
The data collected from three vibrations test points are
supposed as 1 (), 2 (), 3 (), and the signal received from
the noise test point is (). The multi-input single-output
linear system model is shown in Figure 4. The collected
vibration acceleration signals 1 (), 2 (), 3 () are the inputs
of the system; the collected sound pressure level signal () is
the output of the linear outputs. The four test point data are
(6)
data are analyzed through the Artemis software.
In order to grasp the noise distributing laws of the
reducer, three different speeds and three different loads were
selected. They are 750 rotations per minute, 1000 rotations
per minute, and 1250 rotations per minute. The three different
loads are 40%, 60%, and 80% of the full load. Figure 5 shows
the vibration acceleration spectrum diagram of test point
1 with the input shaft rotation of 1250 rpm. The frequency
spectrum diagrams of the other speeds are not given here due
to limited space.
4 Mathematical Problems in Engineering

90 characteristics of the vibration and noise are obtained after

80 the vibration and noise tests. The noise sources are identified
as the ring plates. To reduce the noise of the reducer, the
Cross-spectrum (dB)

70
60 structure of the ring plates or the unbalance of installation
50 may be taken into consideration.
40
30 Acknowledgment
20
10 This work is supported by Key Laboratory of Modern Acous-
0 tics, Ministry of Education, China (Project no. 1108).
3 296 589 882 1175 1468 1761 2054 2347 2640 2933
Frequency (Hz) References
Figure 9: Cross-spectrum between 5 and 1.
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