Optimum Design of Differential Gear System

• Differential is responsible for providing final gear ratio,

maintaining traction, changing direction of and transferring
power to rear wheels

• Optimum design minimizes weight while preventing failure

by formulation of objective function, design constraints and
application of constraint based optimization.
Failure modes and objective function
• Tooth bending fatigue- loaded side of gear
experiences maximum tensile stress which then acts
as stress concentration sites
• Impact failure- High load occurring for short contact
time
• Abrasive & Adhesive wear, Case crushing- removal
of material by abrasive particles
• Objective function is minimization of weight
 Design constraints
• Fatigue failure -induced bending stress< allowable
bending stress
• Induced contact stress< allowable contact stress
• Optimization problem is minimizing weight function
subject to fatigue and contact failure constraints.
• Penalty function method transforms problem into
series of unconstrained optimization problems
• Interior penalty- Minima lies in the feasible region and
converges to the solution with varying penalty
parameter.
• Exterior penalty- minima lies outside feasible region
 Discussion and Results

• Unconstrained minimization is carried out by

choosing decreasing values of r, starting off with a
larger value to obtain a smooth plot and locate the
minima easily.
• Preferable to start off with a moderately large
value of r but not too large to reduce the
iterations
• Optimum weight depends on the starting points of
the deign variables
 Quantification of the torsional moment induced by a three-
point bend test fixture on thin angle-ply laminates

• Three-point and Four-point bend tests are used as ASTM

standards for determination of flexural modulus for materials
subjected to bending. In previous studies on angle ply
laminates subjected to bending in four point bending tests
• In the present study, the effects of coupon width, ply layup,
and support span on the apparent flexural modulus of angle-
ply laminates are evaluated in a three-point bend test.
• Angle Ply laminates contain equal number of layers of equal
thickness at orientations of the fiber which undergo twisting
about the longitudinal axis during a bend test. The twisting is
resisted by the test fixture due to the presence of a torsional
moment which depends on the width of the coupons, layup,
and support span
 Standard Test Method for Flexural Properties of Polymer Matrix
Composite Materials

• The test determines the flexural modulus for polymer matrix composites
using a three point bend test in which the load is centrally applied on a bar
of rectangular cross section, which is a simply supported beam. Force is
applied till the point of failure, which can occur on either one of the outer
plies or when a pre-determined value of deformation is attained
• The test method is used for continuous fiber reinforced polymer
composites and uses a standard span-to-thickness ratio of 32:1
Methodology, Virtual Test Matrix
• Finite element simulation was used to determine the effects of coupon
width, support span, ply layup on the apparent flexural modulus and
induced torsional moment for a 3-point bending test configuration. Ply
layups were restricted to angle ply layups of the form [ for θ= 0, 9, 10, 20,
30. The coupon width was varied between 8mm and 50mm, support span
was varied between 16:1 and 100:1, and the ply layup was varied for the
angles θ= 0, 9, 10, 20, 30.
 Finite Element Models
• All coupons had a thickness of 2.36 mm and were composed of 4 plies.
This is the same as an 8 ply laminate with 4 sets of doubled up plies. The
coupon extended past the supports by 10mm on each end and the total
coupon length for the baseline model was 114.4mm. The material was a
carbon epoxy
• The finite element simulations were carried out using the commercial
software ANSYS. The laminate model was created using ANSYS
DesignModeler(Fig.1) and consists of four symmetric plies each with a
thickness of 0.295mm
• The finite element mesh was chosen based on geometry selection with
the plies and rollers representing different geometries
• The plies were represented using higher order elements as shown in Fig. 2
with element size of 2mm. The rollers were represented by solid cylinders
that had a radius of 2.5 mm each
• The rollers were defined using an element size of 0.5mm at the region of
contact with the coupons and an element size of 2mm throughout the rest
of the area. The coupon was made to slide over the rollers with a
coefficient of fiction of 0.2. The two lower rollers were fixed supports and
the upper roller was allowed to move 0.72mm in the negative direction.
• The flexural modulus was calculated using the equation,