Minimizing synchronization time of a gear shifting mechanism by optimizing its structural design parameters

A gear shifting mechanism is modeled in GT-Suite software. The mechanism has three main bodies: sleeve, ring, and gear. Results obtained from the simulation show that GT-Suite model can predict gear shifting process. Synchronization processes for three conditions of nominal, road grade, and vibrational motion of the master are studied in six cases by considering the sleeve and the gear as a master alternatively. The optimization based on the GT-Suite model is performed for each case to find the minimum gear shifting time based on variations of 17 structural design parameters. Minimum synchronization time is found almost same in all cases. It is concluded from closeness of the optimization results that average of the parameter values can be considered as optimized values for all cases. At the end, robustness of the optimized structural design parameters are analyzed with respect to the road grade, amplitude, and frequency of oscillatory excitation of rotational motion of the master.