Optimal design of compliant displacement magnification mechanisms using stress-constrained topology optimization based on effective energy

TL;DR

This paper introduces a stress-constrained topology optimization method based on effective energy for designing compliant displacement magnification mechanisms, enabling reaction-force-free designs and avoiding stress concentration issues.

Contribution

It presents a novel optimization framework that eliminates the need for artificial boundary springs and effectively manages stress constraints in mechanism design.

Findings

Designs without reaction forces at output ports achieved.

Method successfully avoids stress concentration problems.

Numerical examples demonstrate improved mechanism performance.

Abstract

In this paper, stress-constrained topology optimization is applied to the design of compliant displacement magnification mechanisms. By formulating the objective function based on the concept of effective energy, it is not necessary to place artificial spring components at the boundaries of the output and input ports as in previous methods. This makes it possible to design mechanisms that do not receive a reaction force at the output port, such as sensors. Furthermore, by imposing a constraint on the maximum stress evaluated in terms of the p-norm of the von Mises equivalent stress, problems such as stress concentration can be avoided. Several numerical examples of displacement magnification mechanisms are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.