From Manufacturing Measurements to Variability-Aware NVH Simulation of Electric-Vehicle Gearboxes: A Simulation-Ready Parameter Framework

Electric-vehicle gearboxes operate at high rotational speeds and under low acoustic masking, making tonal excitation and unit-to-unit variability important design concerns. Contemporary loaded tooth contact, multibody, finite-element, and vibroacoustic models can represent the nominal excitation–transfer–response–radiation chain in considerable detail, but their inputs often remain disconnected from the manufactured and assembled gearbox. This review develops a structured framework for identifying which physical parameters, numerical representations, and validation evidence are required before a model can credibly represent a nominal design, a tolerance space, an as-built unit, or a production population. Parameters are classified jointly based on the physical origin and noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) function and are mapped to contact, system-dynamic, structural, acoustic, and hybrid data-driven models. Four simulation-readiness levels are defined: nominal, tolerance-based, measurement-based, and variability-aware. Explicit transition gates, validation quantities, and permitted claims are assigned to each level. A stage-specific validation matrix distinguishes contact-level, interface-force, structural-response, and acoustic evidence. Literature-grounded quantitative examples demonstrate validated elastic multibody modeling and manufacturing-data-based gear-whine prediction while clarifying the limits of the available evidence. The framework provides a traceable basis for model planning, measurement selection, uncertainty analysis, and readiness-aware reporting of electric-vehicle gearbox NVH simulations.