Abstract
Flexure hinges are joints typically used in the design and manufacturing of compliant mechanisms, especially when small dimensions do not allow for conventional mechanical devices. In this paper, a closed-form solution is proposed for a nonlinear stiffness model used to describe the static displacements obtained on a flexure hinge of elementary geometry as a function of applied loads. A comparison with the most widely used linear model demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed nonlinear approach, highlighting the advantages of its use in its scope of application. The obtained results are verified by finite element (FE) simulations, taken as a reference of the actual behavior assumed for the joints studied.
Issue Section:
Research Papers
Keywords:
compliant mechanisms,
kinematics,
dynamics,
and control of mechanical systems,
mechanism synthesis and analysis,
microscale mechanisms and robotics,
theoretical and computational kinematics
Topics:
Bending (Stress),
Geometry,
Hinges,
Stiffness,
Displacement,
Stress,
Errors,
Compliant mechanisms,
Simulation
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