Optimal fiber orientations and topology of compliant mechanisms using lamination parameters

A design approach for compliant mechanisms with straight fiber laminate is presented to obtain the optimal fiber orientations and topology structure simultaneously in this paper. Firstly, an equivalent constitutive relation of straight fiber laminate is parameterized in terms of lamination parameters. Taking lamination parameters and relative density as design variables, minimizing the weighted linear combination of the mutual strain energy (MSE) and the strain energy (SE) is considered as objective function to achieve the desired deformation and enough load carrying capacity with the volume constraint. The nonlinear optimization problem is solved via the well known method of moving asymptotes (MMA). The outcomes of first step are the optimal topology structure and lamination parameters. Secondly, the optimal fiber orientation for each layer is found by matching the optimal lamination parameters. Finally, the numerical examples of designing compliant inverters are investigated to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.