Topological synthesis of fluidic pressure-actuated robust compliant mechanisms
arXiv:2107.03618 · doi:10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2022.104871
Abstract
This paper presents a robust density-based topology optimization approach for synthesizing pressure-actuated compliant mechanisms. To ensure functionality under manufacturing inaccuracies, the robust or three-field formulation is employed, involving dilated, intermediate and eroded realizations of the design. Darcy's law in conjunction with a conceptualized drainage term is used to model the pressure load as a function of the design vector. The consistent nodal loads are evaluated from the obtained pressure field using the standard finite element method. The objective and load sensitivities are obtained using the adjoint-variable approach. A multi-criteria objective involving both the stiffness and flexibility of the mechanism is employed in the robust formulation, and min-max optimization problems are solved to obtain pressure-actuated inverter, gripper, and contractor compliant mechanisms with different minimum feature sizes. Limitations of the linear elasticity assumptions while designing mechanisms are identified with high pressure loads. Challenges involved in designing finite deformable pressure-actuated compliant mechanisms are presented.
24 Figures
References in corpus (3)
- Topology Optimization and 3D printing of Large Deformation Compliant Mechanisms for Straining Biological Tissues
- On topology optimization of design-dependent pressure-loaded three-dimensional structures and compliant mechanisms
- HoneyTop90: A 90-line MATLAB code for topology optimization using honeycomb tessellation