Nonlinear Synthesis of Compliant Mechanisms: Topology Design

The paper presents a methodology for generating topology of complaint mechanisms using nonlinear deformation theory. A multi-criteria objective function as a ratio of geometrical advantage to mean compliance is employed to capture the conflicting functional requirements of a compliant mechanism. The benefits of using nonlinear methods for large deformation problems are illustrated using two design examples by comparing results from a non-linear implementation of the optimization procedure with a linear scheme.