Kinematic Design and Optimization of Automatic Drive Transmissions

The paper describes a systematic approach to the dimensional synthesis of multiple-speed automatic transmissions for prescribed velocity ratios and minimum circulating power. For a given displacement graph, the method starts exploiting all the feasible clutching sequences and then computes the gear ratios to achieve the prescribed input-output velocity ratios. In order to detect the gear drive with the lowest circulating power, a power flow analysis has been completed for each component of the solution set. A singular feature of this work is the simultaneous optimization of kinematic structure, gear ratios and clutching sequence to achieve minimum circulating power. A numerical example details all the phases of the suggested method.