Structural optimization methods of nonlinear static analysis with contact and its application to design lightweight gear box of automatic transmission of vehicles

In this paper, we consider lightweight design methods for gear box of automatic transmission of vehicles with contact constraints. Lightweight design is a fundamental requirement for protecting the environment and improving fuel economy. In addition, durability is another important requirement for safe driving. However, in the design of automatic transmissions, these two requirements are usually in a trade-off relationship and engineers spend a long design study time. This paper deals with design approaches using structural optimization method to design lightweight structures and to minimize stress with contact constraints. Stress with contact constraints is solved using the finite element method. Three different structural optimization methods, topometry, topography and freeform optimization, are applied for the design of a lightweight gear box of an automatic transmission. The optimization results show that the optimization methods successfully found the lightweight gear box design and can be used at the early stage of the design process of automatic transmissions.