Different excitation mechanisms, as for example the meshing of gears, cause vibrations in the surrounding structures. This may damage the components on the one hand and on the other hand lead to unwanted audible noise.
At IMS, we are doing research on active systems which are able to drastically reduce the vibrations. Active components are treated as part of the whole system and not just as an add-on device. Meaning that the implementation of an active system allows a generally worse passive NVH performance of the overall system, since the active parts take care of the NVH properties during operation. Therefore, considering active components already at the beginning of the system design opens up new space of solutions. Thus, this approach has the potential to generate better overall systems in comparison to optimized passive systems.