Abstract

As the product development cost reduction is imperative, optimization methodologies gradually become a fundamental part of the product development in an increasing number of companies, in various industries and sectors. This is enabled, among others, by the continuous increase of the available computational resources.
This paper showcases the multi-objective optimization of a crankshaft, concerning its mass and the maximum developed stresses under a harmonic and a static analysis.
It is described how the modeling issues are faced, and how the crankshaft model was parameterized in order to be modified and meet the optimization objectives. The automation of the model modifications is highlighted. The extraction of responses by the post-processor and the handling of the workflow by the optimization software are described.
ANSA and μΕΤΑ, the pre- and post-processing suite, in order to meet the requirement for efficient and complete optimization procedures, offers integrated functionality for the interfacing to the most commonly used commercial parametric optimizers. In this case, ANSA & μΕΤΑ are combined with modeFRONTIER which drives the optimization process.