Synthesis and Optimization of Contact-Aided Compliant Mechanisms with Prescribed Nonlinear Curve

This paper proposes a simple synthesis method of the beam-based contact-aided compliant mechanisms (CCMs) based on the chained pseudo-rigid-body model (CPRBM). The proposed method can be applied under any loading conditions and provide an alternative design tool to the finite element analysis (FEA). Then, a concise optimization framework is presented, followed by two numerical examples to validate the feasibility of the proposed method. Polynomial curves are used to describe the profile of contact surfaces. The analysis results verify the accuracy of the analytical model and demonstrate that the proposed method can be used to obtain the CCMs with desired functionalities, e.g., nonlinear force-displacement characteristic and minimum average center drift. Finally, the limitations of this paper and some outlooks are discussed. Furthermore, the proposed method retains the generality in shape and dimension and can be extended for the synthesis of general beams and arbitrary contact surfaces.