Procedure for optimum design of a two-stage spur gear system

In this paper, an optimum design of a two-stage spur gear system is performed. The optimization is based on a multicriterion technique consisting of a Min-Max method combined with a direct search technique. The optimum design includes the minimization of seven objective functions. They are the volume of gears, the center distance and five dynamic factors in the input shaft, first-teeth meshing, intermediate shaft, second meshing and the output shaft. The dynamic factors are estimated using a dynamic model of twelve degrees of freedom. The objective functions are governed by eleven design variables, chosen to be the number of teeth and face width of the pinion of each stage, stiffness of the input, intermediate, and output shafts and the inertia of the four gears of the mechanism. The developed optimum design is found to give compact-gear system with quiet running (minimum dynamic factors) compared with the classical design. The angle between the power transmitting directions is found to have an important role on the objective functions and the optimum design. A value of 180degrees for this angle is found to be the optimal for all functions.