Finite Element Analysis on Design Optimized Bevel Gear Pair to Check Its Durability

In today’s era, due to increasing energy demands, it is necessary to make vehicles lightweight without affecting their strength. In order to achieve this, the subassemblies of the automobile should be optimized. Optimizing the product not only saves energy consumption but also reduces the material required for manufacturing and increases the overall performance of the product. Taking the same as the base, this article focuses on optimization of a straight bevel gear pair used in automotive differential and performing finite element analysis (FEA) to validate its results. FEA is carried out on the optimized bevel gear to check its durability, and topology optimization is performed on the optimized gear to reduce the mass. Finally, the optimized gear is checked for fatigue. For design optimization, nonlinear multi-objective problem is formulated with a number of teeth and modules as the design parameters. Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA)-II algorithm is chosen for optimization. Also multi-body dynamics is performed on the design optimized and topology optimized gear, and the results are compared to understand the effects of weight reduction in the gear with respect to (wrt) vibrations. Design Optimization is accomplished using MATLAB 2018 optimization toolbox, finite element analysis and topology using ANSYS V16.0, and multi-body dynamics using MSC ADAMS 2016.