STRUCTURAL OPTIMIZATION CONSIDERING FLEXIBILITY (INTEGRATED DESIGN METHOD FOR COMPLIANT MECHANISMS)

In structural design, the stiffest structure is considered optimal. Ho wever, flexibility can provide structures with certain advantages in t erms of structural performance or additional function such as mechanic al function, if flexibility mode can be specified. Compliant mechanism is a new breed of mechanisms which uses the design concept of structu ral flexibility to achieve a specified motion. In this paper, an integ rated structural optimization method to implement flexibility in the m echanical structure is proposed, and applied to the compliant mechanis m design. First, structural flexibility is expressed using mutual ener gy, and a new multi-objective function incorporating the maximum flexi bility and minimum compliance is formulated. Next, a design procedure is constructed using the homogenization design method and image based approach. Finally, some examples of designing compliant mechanisms are presented, which confirm that the method presented here can be applie d to the compliant mechanism design.