In this article, the identification of optimal topologies for multi-material compliant mechanisms based on the regularized projected gradient approach is presented and analyzed. The monolithic structure of compliant mechanisms makes… Click to show full abstract
In this article, the identification of optimal topologies for multi-material compliant mechanisms based on the regularized projected gradient approach is presented and analyzed. The monolithic structure of compliant mechanisms makes them suitable to be used in microelectromechanical systems to transfer load and force. The use of additive manufacturing technologies makes it possible to build multi-material structures. However, a proper design optimization approach must be considered to design multi-material mechanisms as well. In this article, the solid isotropic material with a penalization (SIMP) material interpolation scheme is used to parameterize the continuum design domain. The perimeter penalization approach is utilized to remove the checkerboard patterns and scatters in optimal designs. To handle the volume equality constraint, the regularized constraint projection strategy is utilized. Some benchmark problems are considered to analyze the performance of the method.
               
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