Title: A conceptual design system of epicyclic gear mechanism based on digital manufacturing

Authors: Yang Ping, Zhihua Pei

Addresses: Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing, School of Mechanical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, PR China. ' Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing, School of Mechanical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, PR China

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to develop a basic innovative design system for automatical design of epicyclic gear mechanism. The system is developed based on a complex model by hybridising graph theory and ant algorithm. A computer program was developed in Visual C++. Some examples confirm the validity of the system. Some measures were developed for improving the efficiency based on parameters selection. It builds a basis for intelligent CAD of epicyclic gear mechanism for digital manufacturing.

Keywords: conceptual design; isomorphism identification; epicyclic gear mechanisms; adjacency graph; ant colony; ant algorithm; gear design; graph theory; intelligent CAD; digital manufacturing; intelligent design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMTM.2009.026382

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 2009 Vol.18 No.3, pp.262 - 270

Published online: 09 Jun 2009 *

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