An investigation into the effects of curved beam elements on the out-of-plane stiffness profile in a compliant large-displacement finger

Valerie Y. Goemans, Just L. Herder, Mary I. Frecker

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Compliant mechanisms have many advantages over rigid-link mechanisms. However, one of the challenges of compliant mechanisms is the trade-off between a large range of motion and a high out-of-plane stiffness. Furthermore, the out-of-plane stiffness is shown to vary over the range of motion. Especially for large-displacement compliant mechanisms this can be by a significant amount. In this paper the use of curved beam elements in a compliant mechanism is shown to have impact on this tradeoff. The influence of curved beam elements on the out-of-plane stiffness over the entire range of motion is presented for simple structures such as a single beam element and double beam elements, as well as a compliant finger. With the use of a genetic algorithm optimization, the difference in performance of a design with only straight beam elements versus one with curved beam elements is highlighted and the effect on the out-of-plane stiffness profile is presented. The optimization with curved beam elements results in solutions with a performance in terms of objective function values that cannot be found by the optimization with only straight beam elements. It is shown that for simple structures the use of curved beam elements has a large influence on the shape of the out-of-plane stiffness profile along the range of motion, while for the compliant finger the influence is mainly in the variables of the out-of-plane stiffness profile.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication37th Mechanisms and Robotics Conference
PublisherAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers
ISBN (Print)9780791855935
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
EventASME 2013 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, IDETC/CIE 2013 - Portland, OR, United States
Duration: Aug 4 2013Aug 7 2013

Publication series

NameProceedings of the ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference
Volume6 A

Other

OtherASME 2013 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, IDETC/CIE 2013
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityPortland, OR
Period8/4/138/7/13

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Modeling and Simulation
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'An investigation into the effects of curved beam elements on the out-of-plane stiffness profile in a compliant large-displacement finger'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this