Material Selection for Gear Manufacture in Terms of the Probabilistic Multi-objective Optimization

Probabilistic multi-objective optimization based material selection is conducted for gear manufacturing. This method incorporates the new concepts of preferable probability and total preferable probability of an alternative, which are determined by comprehensively considering all possible property responses of the alternative. Each property response of a material contributes a partial preferable probability to the alternative in a linearly correlative manner, either positively or negatively, depending on whether it is a beneficial or unbeneficial type in the evaluation. The total preferable probability of an alternative is obtained by multiplying all partial preferable probabilities. The optimal choice is the alternative with the maximum total preferable probability. In gear manufacturing material selection, five criteria are considered: core hardness, surface hardness, surface fatigue limit, bending fatigue limit, and ultimate tensile strength. Core hardness is regarded as an unbeneficial response, while the other four are beneficial. Through quantitative assessment, carburized steel is ultimately chosen as the optimal material.