Topological Synthesis of Compliant Mechanisms Using Nonlinear Beam Elements

Abstract

The article presents a methodology for generating topology of complaint mechanisms using nonlinear deformation theory. In an earlier work, (Joo, J., Kota, S., Kikuchi, N., (2000) Topological synthesis of compliant mechanisms using linear beam elements. Mechanics of Structures and Machines 28(4):245–280), we presented a topology synthesis methodology using linear beam elements. Using large deformation analysis, the article presents a methodology for topology synthesis based on a multicriteria objective function as a ratio of geometrical advantage to strain energy is employed to capture the conflicting functional requirements that are inherent in compliant mechanisms design. The benefits of using nonlinear methods for large deformation problems are illustrated by using three design examples and comparing results from a nonlinear implementation of the optimization procedure with a linear scheme.