Design of Large-Displacement Compliant Mechanisms by Topology Optimization Incorporating Modified Additive Hyperelasticity Technique

Abstract EN

This paper is focused on the topology design of compliant mechanisms undergoing large displacement (over 20% of the structural dimension).

Based on the artificial spring model and the geometrically nonlinear finite element analysis, the optimization problem is formulated so as to maximize the output displacement under a given material volume constraint.

A modified additive hyperelasticity technique is proposed to circumvent numerical instabilities that occurred in the low-density or intermediate-density elements during the optimization process.

Compared to the previous method, the modified technique is very effective and can provide more accurate response analysis for the large-displacement compliant mechanism.

The whole optimization process is carried out by the gradient-based mathematical programming method.

Numerical examples of a force-inverting mechanism and a microgripping mechanism are presented.

The obtained optimal solutions verify the applicability of the proposed numerical techniques and show the necessity of considering large displacement in the design problem.