Optimal design of two-stage speed reducer using two-phase evolutionary algorithm

In this paper an optimal design of two-stage speed reducer is presented. The novelty of this work consists in the complex and complete approach of the optimal design of gearings. The chosen objective function was the volume bounded by the inner surface of the reducer housing. For this example of optimal design, eleven genes were taken into consideration and a set of thirty six constraints were formulated. In solving the optimization problem we used an original two-phase evolutionary algorithm (2PhEA) inspired from the evolutionary concept of “punctuated equilibrium”. 2PhEA is implemented in Cambrian v.3.2 which is in operation at the Optimal Design Centre of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Keywords—Evolutionary algorithms, helical gears, optimal design.