Performance Evaluation of Differential Evolution and Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithms for Optimizing Power Loss in a Worm Gear Mechanism

Abstract

Optimal design of machine elements plays a vital role in reducing the cost of manufacturing the machine elements. Design optimization is an important task to achieve the above goal. Many optimization algorithms have been proposed and used in the past for design optimization and they are used to find the optimal set of design variables possibly subjected to a set of constraints. Still, there is a scope for efficient algorithms for the design optimization of machine elements. In this study, the design optimization of a worm gear mechanism is presented by using two non-conventional optimization algorithms namely Differential Evolution and Particle Swarm Optimization algorithms for minimizing the power-loss. The results obtained by using Differential Evolution and Particle Swarm Optimization algorithms are compared with that of genetic algorithm and analytical method. The results showed that both the algorithms are efficient in finding the optimal design values.