Components of an automatized transmission system were improved by using techniques of finite element numerical simulation and topology optimization, in order to achieve mass saving and higher performance.
Numerical simulations have being applied more frequently during the components design, once the models become more sophisticated, higher computational capacity is available and more precise material properties can be determined. In this paper, a good correlation between the simulation models and the experimental tests was achieved through the material properties determination by means of the impulse excitation technique.
This impulse excitation technique consists of a non-destructive test for the dynamic elasticity modulus and material damping through the vibration natural frequencies. The test specimens are evaluated by an impulsive mechanical excitation and the response acoustic signal is collected by a microphone and processed in a conventional computer.
Besides the mentioned parameters, it is also possible to measure the shear modulus and the Poisson's ratio, which are used to feed the simulation numerical models.
Impulse excitation tests were performed using standardized specimens and components of the automatized transmission in order to calibrate the results obtained from simulations. Thereafter, using the calibrated finite element models well correlated with the experiments, topology optimization technique could be applied to achieve the mass saving of some transmission components, reaching up to 25% of mass reduction keeping the same system performance.