Gear optimization

The use of formal numerical optimization methods for the design of gears is investigated. To achieve this, computer codes were developed for the analysis of spur gears and spiral bevel gears. These codes calculate the life, dynamic load, bending strength, surface durability, gear weight and size, and various geometric parameters. It is necessary to calculate all such important responses because they all represent competing requirements in the design process. The codes developed here were written in subroutine form and coupled to the COPES/ADS general purpose optimization program. This code allows the user to define the optimization problem at the time of program execution. Typical design variables include face width, number of teeth and diametral pitch. The user is free to choose any calculated response as the design objective to minimize or maximize and may impose lower and upper bounds on any calculated responses. Typical examples include life maximization with limits on dynamic load, stress, weight, etc. or minimization of weight subject to limits on life, dynamic load, etc. The research codes were written in modular form for easy expansion and so that they could be combined to create a multiple reduction optimization capability in future

Free energy, stability, and dissipation in dynamical holography

By using the conserved currents associated to the diffeomorphism invariance, we study dynamical holographic systems and the relation between thermodynamical and dynamical stability of such systems. The case with fixed space-time backgrounds is discussed first, where a generalized free energy is defined with the property of monotonic decreasing in dynamic processes. It is then shown that the (absolute) thermodynamical stability implies the dynamical stability, while the linear dynamical stability implies the thermodynamical (meta-)stability. The case with full back-reaction is much more complicated. With the help of conserved currents associated to the diffeomorphism invariance induced by a preferred vector field, we propose a thermodynamic form of the bulk space-time dynamics with a preferred temperature of the event horizon, where a monotonically decreasing quantity can be defined as well. In both cases, our analyses help to clarify some aspects of the far-from-equilibrium holographic physics.Comment: 22 pages, 1 figur