Constraint-force-based approach of modelling compliant mechanisms: Principle and application

Numerous works have been conducted on modelling basic compliant elements such as wire beams, and closed-form analytical models of most basic compliant elements have been well developed. However, the modelling of complex compliant mechanisms is still a challenging work. This paper proposes a constraint-force-based (CFB) modelling approach to model compliant mechanisms with a particular emphasis on modelling complex compliant mechanisms. The proposed CFB modelling approach can be regarded as an improved free-body- diagram (FBD) based modelling approach, and can be extended to a development of the screw-theory-based design approach. A compliant mechanism can be decomposed into rigid stages and compliant modules. A compliant module can offer elastic forces due to its deformation. Such elastic forces are regarded as variable constraint forces in the CFB modelling approach. Additionally, the CFB modelling approach defines external forces applied on a compliant mechanism as constant constraint forces. If a compliant mechanism is at static equilibrium, all the rigid stages are also at static equilibrium under the influence of the variable and constant constraint forces. Therefore, the constraint force equilibrium equations for all the rigid stages can be obtained, and the analytical model of the compliant mechanism can be derived based on the constraint force equilibrium equations. The CFB modelling approach can model a compliant mechanism linearly and nonlinearly, can obtain displacements of any points of the rigid stages, and allows external forces to be exerted on any positions of the rigid stages. Compared with the FBD based modelling approach, the CFB modelling approach does not need to identify the possible deformed configuration of a complex compliant mechanism to obtain the geometric compatibility conditions and the force equilibrium equations. Additionally, the mathematical expressions in the CFB approach have an easily understood physical meaning. Using the CFB modelling approach, the variable constraint forces of three compliant modules, a wire beam, a four-beam compliant module and an eight-beam compliant module, have been derived in this paper. Based on these variable constraint forces, the linear and non-linear models of a decoupled XYZ compliant parallel mechanism are derived, and verified by FEA simulations and experimental tests.     

Design and nonlinear analysis of a 6-DOF compliant parallel manipulator with spatial beam flexure hinges

In this paper, a compliant parallel manipulator with six compliant limbs is proposed for micro positioning applications. The load–displacement model of a single compliant limb is established using a nonlinear closed-form spatial beam model. The inverse solution to the compliant parallel manipulator is then implicitly derived by applying load equilibrium to the moving platform. Finally, the compliant model of the limb and the implicit inverse kinematic solution of the manipulator are fully tested by FEA. Discrepancies between results of the presented models and the FEA are analyzed within planned workspaces. The validations demonstrate that accuracies of the proposed models are acceptable and can be improved by shrinking the planned workspace.     

A novel flexure beam module with low stiffness loss in compliant mechanisms

Flexure mechanisms provide guided motion via elastic deformation of thin beams. Due to the employment of compliant elements, these mechanisms cannot sufficiently maintain acceptable constraint stiffness level in the entire range of motion. The stiffness deterioration afflicts the performance of flexure mechanisms in terms of motion range, accuracy and constraint characteristics. This paper presents a novel flexure beam module with improved constraint behavior in beam-based flexure mechanisms. The proposed module alleviates the problem of stiffness loss in large displacements and provides a better motion performance. The mathematical model governing the static behavior of the module is developed using the principle of virtual work. The geometric nonlinearity associated with large midplane stretching is taken into account. Closed-form solutions are derived for load-displacement relationships, providing a powerful design tool for the novel flexure. Also a nonlinear expression is obtained for the strain energy of the flexure in terms of end displacements. The functionality of the presented module is exploited in a multi-beam parallelogram mechanism. The constraint behavior of the parallelogram is analytically quantified and considerable improvements in stiffnesses and error motions are observed. The analytical results provided in this paper are verified via finite element simulations. The proposed novel module can be used as the building block of more complex flexures to improve their stiffness characteristics, diminish their error motions and widen their stability region.     

基于Groebner基法的三自由度并联机床的位置正解与可操作性分析的符号解

基于Groebner基法和计算机符号处理技术,对三自由度并联机床的位置正解问题进行了符号求解。该法通过对变量排序,建立多项式对的集合,求SP多项式,约简等运算,将一组非线性方程组化简为同价的三角化方程组,得到了封闭形式的解析解;导出了雅可比矩阵,引入了符号处理技术,并且对该并联机床的可操作性进行了分析,给出了具体数值实例。     

Design of compliant straight-line mechanisms using flexural joints

Straight-line compliant mechanisms are important building blocks to design a linear-motion stage, which is very useful in precision applications. However, only a few configurations of straight-line compliant mechanisms are applicable. To construct more kinds of them, an approach to design large-displacement straight-line flexural mechanisms with rotational flexural joints is proposed, which is based on a viewpoint that the straight-line motion is regarded as a compromise of rigid and compliant parasitic motion of a rotational flexural joint. An analytical design method based on the Taylor series expansion is proposed to quickly obtain an approximate solution. To illustrate and verify the proposed method, two kinds of flexural joints, cross-axis hinge and leaf-type isosceles-trapezoidal flexural（LITF） pivot are used to reconstruct straight-line flexural mechanisms. Their performances are obtained by analytic and FEA method respectively. The comparisons of the results show the accuracy of the approach. Both examples show that the proposed approach can convert a large-deflection flexural joint into approximate straight-line mechanism with a high linearity that is higher than 5 000 within 5 man displacement. This can lead to a new way to design, analyze or optimize straight-line flexure mechanisms.     

Analytical Compliance Modeling of Serial Flexure-Based Compliant Mechanism Under Arbitrary Applied Load

Analytical compliance model is vital to the flexure- based compliant mechanism in its mechanical design and motion control. The matrix is a common and effective approach in the compliance modeling while it is not well developed for the closed-loop serial and parallel compliant mechanisms and is not applicable to the situation when the external loads are applied on the flexure members. Concise and explicit analytical compliance models of the serial flexure-based compliant mechanisms under arbitrary loads are derived by using the matrix method. An equivalent method is proposed to deal with the situation when the external loads are applied on the flexure members. The external loads are transformed to concentrated forces applied on the rigid links, which satisfy the equations of static equilibrium and also guarantee that the deformations at the displacement output point remain unchanged. Then the matrix method can be still adopted for the compliance analysis of the compliant mechanism. Finally, several specific examples and an experimental test are given to verify the effectiveness of the compliance models and the force equivalent method. The research enriches the matrix method and provides concise analytical compliance models for the serial compliant mechanism.     

Isomorphism analysis on generalized modules oriented to the distributed parameterized intelligent product platform

The distributed parameterized intelligent product platform (DPIPP) contains many agents of a product minimum approximate autonomous subsystem (generalized module). These distributed agents communicate, coordinate, and cooperate using their knowledge and skills and eventually accomplish the design for mass customization in a loosely coupled environment. In this study, a new method of isomorphism analysis on generalized modules oriented to DPIPP is proposed. First, on the basis of the bill of material partition and generalized module mining, the parameters of the main characteristics are extracted to construct the main characteristic parameter matrix. Second, similarity calculation of generalized modules is realized by improving the clustering using representatives algorithm, and isomorphism model sets are obtained. Generalized modules with a similar structure are combined to complete the isomorphism analysis. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by taking high- and medium-pressure valve data as an example.     

Exact dynamic stiffness matrix of a Timoshenko three-beam system

An exact dynamic stiffness matrix is established for an elastically connected three-beam system, which is composed of three parallel beams of uniform properties with uniformly distributed-connecting springs among them. The formulation includes the effects of shear deformation and rotary inertia of the beams. The dynamic stiffness matrix is derived by rigorous use of the analytical solutions of the governing differential equations of motion of the three-beam system in free vibration. The use of the dynamic stiffness matrix to study the free vibration characteristics of the three-beam system is demonstrated by applying the Muller root search algorithm. Numerical results for the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the illustrative examples are discussed for 10 interesting boundary conditions and three different stiffness constants of springs.     

Accurate higher-order analytical approximate solutions to nonconservative nonlinear oscillators and application to van der Pol damped oscillators

In general, this paper deals with general nonlinear oscillations of a nonconservative and single degree-of-freedom system with odd nonlinearity and, in particular, it presents accurate higher-order analytical approximate solutions to van der Pol damped nonlinear oscillators having odd nonlinearity and the Rayleigh equation. By combining the linearization of the governing equation with harmonic balancing and the method of averaging, we establish accurate analytical approximate solutions for the general weakly damped nonlinear systems. Unlike the classical harmonic balance method, simple linear algebraic equations instead of nonlinear algebraic equations are obtained upon linearization prior to harmonic balancing. The combination of these two methods results in very accurate transient response of the periodic solution. In addition and for the first time, this paper also presents a method for deducing fourth-, fifth- and higher-order linearized governing equations from the lower-order equations without the requirement of formulating the problem from the first principle. Three examples including the van der Pol damped nonlinear oscillator are presented to illustrate the excellent agreement with approximate solution using the exact frequency.     

A novel analytical model for flexure-based proportion compliant mechanisms

This paper proposes a novel analytical model for flexure-based proportion compliant mechanisms. The displacement and stiffness calculations of such flexure-based compliant mechanisms are formulated based on the principle of virtual work and pseudo rigid body model (PRBM). According to the theory and method, a set of closed-form equations are deduced in this paper, which incorporate the stiffness characteristics of each flexure hinge, together with the other geometric and material properties of the compliant mechanism. The rotation center point for a corner-filleted flexure hinge is investigated based on the finite element analysis (FEA) and PRBM. An empirical equation for the rotational angle is fitted in this paper in order to calculate accurately the position of the end-point of the flexure hinge. The displacement proportion equation for such mechanisms is derived according to the new approach. Combining the new proposed design equation and the existed stiffness equation, a new proportion compliant mechanism with corner-filleted flexure hinges is designed by means of the least squares optimization. The designed models are verified by finite element analysis.     

Modeling of cross-spring pivots subjected to generalized planar loads

Cross-spring pivots, formed by crossing two identical flexural beams at their midpoint, have been broadly used in precision engineering and aerospace fields. Many researches have been conducted on modeling and analysis of cross-spring pivots. However the influence of application position and magnitude of the external loads on the load-rotation and parasitic motion characteristics has not yet been discussed. In order to reveal the effect of the external loads, this paper develops the accurate load-rotation and center shift models of cross-spring pivots, with generalized planar loads applied including bending moment, horizontal and vertical forces. Firstly, by using the energy method, the load-displacement models of the pivot are derived with the assumption of small rotational angles. Based on the models, the influence of generalized planar loads on the load-rotation relationship is discussed, which shows that both application position and magnitude of the vertical and horizontal forces influence the load-rotation behaviors. Then the accurate center shift expressions of the pivot with generalized planar loads are developed, which shows that the rotational angle is the dominant term for both components of the center shift while the vertical and horizontal forces are small. Finally, the accuracy of the proposed model is validated by finite element analysis(FEA). Comparing the model data with the results obtained from FEA, the relative error of the load-rotation is less than 6% even if the rotational angle reaches 20°; the relative errors of the two components of center shift are less than 5% and 10% respectively when the rotational angle reaches 10°. The proposed model and analytical conclusions can be used to analyze and preliminarily design the compliant mechanisms containing cross-spring pivots.     

四自由度并联机床的位置正解及工作空间分析

针对一种改进的四自由度并联机床,建立了四自由度空间并联机床位置正解的封闭方程,得到了单变量的16次输入输出方程。对四自由度并联机床的工作空间进行了分析,推导出了边界曲面方程,该工作空间是由12张曲面片包围而成的闭包。给出了数值实例。     

基于液—固耦合有限元仿真的液阻悬置集总参数模型动特性分析

探讨应用非线性固体有限元和液-固耦合非线性有限元仿真方法预测与识别液阻悬置集总参数模型的主要参数(如上液室的体积刚度和等效活塞面积、惯性通道中的液体和解耦板及其附连液体的惯性系数与流量阻尼系数等)的分析方法。在此基础上，利用集总参数分析模型对一种轿车用液阻悬置的动特性进行计算分析。数值预测结果与实测结果或近似解析计算结果的对比分析表明，基于液-固耦合有限元仿真方法的液阻悬置集总参数模型动特性分析技术是可行、有效的，其预测结果精度特性满足工程要求。应用这种方法，可以在液阻悬置的设计开发阶段较精确地预测产品的性能和进行优化设计，有利于提高产品设计质量、缩短开发周期。     

基于谐波平衡法的非线性低频隔振系统振动特性研究

针对非线性低频隔振系统振动响应和振动传递率进行理论研究。基于非线性弹性元件的载荷－位移试验数据建立了非线性低频隔振系统的动力学模型和动力学方程。借助谐波平衡法对该非线性动力学方程进行近似求解,得到该非线性低频振动系统的一次谐波位移响应和振动传递率的近似表达式。分析了不同系统参数对振动传递率和曲线族骨架形状的影响,并对这种影响产生的原因进行了解释。理论结果与试验结果对比显示,当该非线性低频隔振系统工作在有效隔振频段内时,两者吻合良好。     

球铰刚度计算模型及靠冗余支链实现并联机床刚度的改善

以Stewart机构为例提出一种基于解析法和有限元法的刚度分析新方法。应用有限元软件模拟球铰内的非线性接触变形,将计算结果抽象成一个特征参数带入机构的刚度解析模型中,然后得到机构的刚度矩阵,以解决在解析模型中无法处理铰链刚性的问题,并采用有限元软件证实该方法的可靠性。如果在解析模型中忽略球铰变形,则整个机构的刚度解析结果将产生较大误差。在此基础上,应用该方法定量研究采用主动冗余支链对提高并联机床刚性的效果。结果表明,在一定工作空间范围内,主动冗余支链可以显著提高并联机床的刚性。     

Approximate Solutions of Primary Resonance for Forced Duffing Equation by Means of the Homotopy Analysis Method

Nonlinear dynamic equation is a common engineering model.There is not precise analytical solution for most of nonlinear differential equations.These nonlinear differential equations should be solved by using approximate methods.Classical perturbation methods such as LP method,KBM method,multi-scale method and the averaging method on weakly nonlinear vibration system is effective,while the strongly nonlinear system is difficult to apply.Approximate solutions of primary resonance for forced Duffing equation is investigated by means of homotopy analysis method (HAM).Different from other approximate computational method,the HAM is totally independent of small physical parameters,and thus is suitable for most nonlinear problems.The HAM provides a great freedom to choose base functions of solution series,so that a nonlinear problem may be approximated more effectively.The HAM provides us a simple way to adjust and control the convergence region of the series solution by means of an auxiliary parameter and the auxiliary function.Therefore,HAM not only may solve the weakly non-linear problems but also may be suitable for the strong non-linear problem.Through the approximate solution of forced Duffing equation with cubic non-linearity,the HAM and fourth order Runge-Kutta method of numerical solution were compared,the results show that the HAM not only can solve the steady state solution,but also can calculate the unsteady state solution,and has the good computational accuracy.     

三角形柔性铰链的建模与分析

作为一种旋转单元,三角形柔性铰链可以组合为性能更加优良的柔性模块或柔性机构,如车轮形铰链、蝶形铰链等。建立准确的受力模型,分析其载荷—位移特性成为设计复杂铰链或机构的关键所在。基于近似的悬臂梁模型,建立三角形柔性铰链在同时受到弯矩、切向力和轴向力作用下精确的转角模型。得到未被近似的轴漂计算公式,并根据公式推导实用的轴漂模型。转角和轴漂模型都简洁地表征了载荷—位移关系,最后,通过有限元分析验证了所建立的模型的准确性。     

Design and stiffness analysis of a compliant spherical chain with three degrees of freedom

This paper introduces and investigates a compliant spherical 3R open chain that is obtained by the in-series connection of three identical circularly-curved beam flexures with coincident centers of curvature and mutually orthogonal axes of maximum rotational compliance. The considered open chain is intended to be used directly as a spherical mechanism in pointing devices or as a complex spherical flexure for the development of spatial parallel manipulators. The compliance matrix of the proposed chain is first determined via an analytical procedure. After finite element validation, the obtained equations are used in a parametric study to assess the influence of circularly-curved beam flexure geometric parameters on the overall stiffness performances of the considered compliant spherical 3R open chain. In addition, comparison with an equivalent compliant spherical chain employing straight beam flexures is reported to highlight the added benefits of using circularly-curved beam flexures in terms of reduced parasitic motions.     

Higher order explicit solutions for nonlinear dynamic model of column buckling using variational approach and variational iteration algorithm-II

This paper deals with the determination of approximate solutions for a model of column buckling using two efficient and powerful methods called He’s variational approach and variational iteration algorithm-II. These methods are used to find analytical approximate solution of nonlinear dynamic equation of a model for the column buckling. First and second order approximate solutions of the equation of the system are achieved. To validate the solutions, the analytical results have been compared with those resulted from Runge-Kutta 4th order method. A good agreement of the approximate frequencies and periodic solutions with the numerical results and the exact solution shows that the present methods can be easily extended to other nonlinear oscillation problems in engineering. The accuracy and convenience of the proposed methods are also revealed in comparisons with the other solution techniques.     

Studies about the use of semicircular beams as hinges in large deflection planar compliant mechanisms

Conventional hinge designs in planar compliant mechanisms have a limited deformation range because of the high stresses induced during deflection. To improve the range of motion of these mechanisms, hinges that allow for large displacement are highly desirable. This paper explores the use of curved beams as large displacement hinges in planar compliant mechanisms. To facilitate design, analytic expressions that predict deflections under different types of loads are introduced. These expressions are used in pseudo rigid link models of compliant mechanism designs. Predictions made by the analytic expressions are compared with the results of FEA simulations. To validate the proposed models, two planar compliant mechanism designs were prepared and experimental measurements of deflections under loads were made. Overall, results showed that analytic models and FEA predictions lie within 10% of experimental data for the planar mechanism geometry in which pseudo rigid motion models apply. FEA models of the second case, a more complex mechanism, make predictions that lie within 15% of experimental measurements. Results and ways to improve accuracy of models and designs are discussed at the end of the article.