Topology Optimization of 3D Compliant Mechanisms

Guide : Prof. Krishnan Suresh (Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin- Madison)

Nowadays, complaint mechanisms are gaining attention due to their increasing applications is surgery, Micro Electro Mechanical Switches (MEMS) devices, space technology as they require less material, less joints and hence are very light compared to rigid mechanisms.

However, their design becomes complex due to non-linear behavior. The project involved design of three-dimensional compliant mechanism using the topology optimization techniques, which involved debugging the solver PareTo in C++ with dimensional synthesis and validation of the results using commercial Finite Element Software Packages. 3D Mechanisms of inverter, cruncher and grasper were optimized with the objective of minimizing the material and maximizing the compliance, involving multi-objective optimization. Thus topology optimization was successfully applied to the the design of 3D compliant mechanisms. I could increase the compliance of mechanisms by 10e5 orders of magnitude.

I suggested various design improvements to increase the compliance beyond the optimized design obtained after the PareTO optimization. e.g.by using spring-like serrated structure. The structure of the material was developed to for complaint structure and negative Poisson's ratio.

I also computed the optimal microstructure of materials that would result in desired mechanical behavior like negative Poisson ratio.