Reduction of tonal wind turbine noise caused by spread in gearbox production

The aim of this PhD trajectory is to reduce the amount of wind turbine tonalities in the field caused by spread in gearbox production and false-positive gearboxes, which is a big issue in the wind industry. To this end, this PhD trajectory will develop a tonality prediction method from the source of the tonal noise being the gear excitation, over the transfer path of the gearbox and wind turbine up to the receiver outside of the turbine. Each sub-part of the prediction method will be experimentally validated, and the simulation time will be minimized to ensure efficient tonality prediction. This method will then be used to investigate and assess dominant root causes of spread in gear excitation, gearbox and wind turbine transfer paths, and turbine radiation, which will eventually allow to identify the most effective measures to reduce tonality spread in wind turbines.