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Review on design of compliant mechanism for automotive application – a

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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET)
Volume 9, Issue 4, April 2018, pp. 748–755, Article ID: IJMET_09_04_083
Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/ijmet/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=9&IType=4
ISSN Print: 0976-6340 and ISSN Online: 0976-6359

© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed

REVIEW ON DESIGN OF COMPLIANT

MECHANISM FOR AUTOMOTIVE
APPLICATION – A TOPLOGY OPTIMIZATION
APPROACH
S.Premanand
Brakes India Private Ltd, Polambakkam, India

Dr.G.Arunkumar
Professor and Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Sathyabama University,Chennai, India

ABSTRACT
This Paper Elucidates the Various Designs Involved in the Compliant mechanism
which is merely applied in Various Applications of interdisciplinary Engineering
Industries. The Compliant mechanism is centre to machinery and all Living
organisms. In general, the Mechanism is defined as Transmission or Transformation
of Force, motion, Energy. On basis of giving clarity about Compliant mechanisms we
need to understand the basic two extremes of Design mechanisms, one extreme part is
Machineries and its motion designs which turnouts into rigid bodies, Joint and
Linkages which are stiffness in nature but transform/transmit into motions, another
extreme is Structural designs (Ex: Bridges, Dams, Towers) which does not deform or
move under loads applied on it. The Compliant mechanism designs acts as a spectrum
between these two and has the property of structures and rigid body mechanism
linkages. The Compliant mechanism has a structural design and has the mobility to
Transform/Transmit Force, motion, Energy, Compliant mechanism is flexible and
necessarily undergoes elastic deformation with a single structure without any joints or
links. This type of designs is easy to manufacture by the 3D Printing Technology
(Additive Manufacturing). This Review Paper narrates we are going to the cover the
advanced designs of compliant mechanisms and its applications adaptable for
engineering or Automotive Industries.
Keywords: Compliant mechanism, Modern Kinematics, Topology Optimisation,
Flexure hinges, Diaphragm, Vacuum assisted Booster, Automotive devices

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 S.Premanand and Dr.G.Arunkumar

Cite this Article: S.Premanand and Dr.G.Arunkumar, Review on Design of

Compliant Mechanism for Automotive Application – A Toplogy Optimization
Approach, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology, 9(4),
2018, pp. 748–755.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=9&IType=4

1. INTRODUCTION TO COMPLIANT MECHANISM ITS

APPLICATIONS
A flexible structure without joints or links that elastically deforms to produce a desired force
or displacement. Compliant Mechanisms are elastic member that is used to transmit or
transform Force, Energy and motion mechanically. Compliant Mechanisms is flexible or
elastic mechanisms necessarily undergo Elastic Deformation. Compliant Mechanism Design
is a Spectrum occupied between Structural Design and Rigid body mechanisms Design.
In present industrial scenario manufacturing and assembly of micro mechanisms and its
structures are found to be challenging. We have the opportunity of single component with
flexibility and without rigid body linkages doing the same function of Rigid body mechanism,
The usage of Compliant mechanisms design in place of rigid body mechanisms in engineering
industries will have an advantage of reduction in Part Cost, weight and no of parts(BOM).
Flexible mechanisms with larger displacement will sort out many kinematics problems faced
in engineering industry like MEMS, Medical Field, Surgical devices. The Current problem
noticed in research point the design of Compliant mechanism is not materialized and directly
suited or shall be fitted in any Engineering/Automobile applications, but this paper narrates
the combination of methodologies adopted by the former researchers in this Compliant
mechanism field for nonlinear motions and its output extent up to direct application in
Engineering / Automotive applications.
At Present the Compliant mechanism designs are widely used in the field of micro
assembly systems, Medical Instruments and Invasive Surgeries, The former generation of
Compliant mechanism design have focused on Macro and Micro kinematic applications
streams but the recent researchers focus the compliant mechanism designs in Micro and Nano
streams [2].By seeing the Micro manipulator designs of compliant mechanisms the parallel
manipulators with five Limbs and one constraining limb are recent trending which their
application is widely used in pick and place tools and robots [4]. Performance decomposition
and Integration (PDI) is presently proposed for development of Design and Optimization of
Compliant micro manipulators [4], Single Input with Single Output (SISO) is former design
of Compliant mechanism in which it needs to prove only the force input vs output
displacement, transmission of motion or energy,
But the Compliant mechanism (SPCA) driven micro grippers are designed to prove the
three relations, Linear input(SPCA) vs clamping movement (Kinematic model proving),
Gripping force vs Strain angle of flexible hinges (static model proving) and finally control of
gripping manipulation of micro grippers (Control strategy proving) [2]. These types of Micro
Compliant Mechanism Grippers design find their application in Piezo electric and Magnetic
Gripping tools in micro assembly systems [2].
Ratchet mechanism is prevalent not only in Automotive Industry
(Centrifugal/Overrunning Clutches but also has applications in everyday engineering like
Turnstiles, bicycle conveyor belts, zip ties, wrenches, etc. Amir HoseinSakhaei et al 2017,
proposes a new compliant multi-material ratchet mechanism instead of a classical ratchet
mechanism citing reasons such as [1] eliminating springs, reducing part count, and therefore
easing of assembly, [2] elimination of space required for the global perpendicular motion of
pawls during insertion, and [3] tuning of the mechanical behavior exploiting recent advances

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 Review on Design of Compliant Mechanism for Automotive Application – A Toplogy
Optimization Approach

in 3D Manufacturing Technology to replace traditional mechanisms with multi-material

mechanisms.

1.1. Compliant Ratchet Mechanism

(a) Linear ratchet (b) rotary ratchet

Figure 1 Schematic diagram of the ratchet mechanism and its components

Figure 2 Proposed Compliant Ratchet Mechanisms

The schematic of performance of the proposed compliant ratchet mechanism; (a) starting
of insertion step in linear direction, (b) during insertion step when the stiff tooth slides against
each other and the flexible parts transfer the displacement of teeth to the localized elastic
deformation, (c) upon the completion of the insertion step, the elastic deformation in flexible
parts is recovered and the teeth are returned to the standing position and the mechanism can
now work as an interlocking mechanism in the opposite direction, and (d) during locking
process, how asymmetrical geometry of the teeth cause interlocking in the reverse direction.

1.2. COMPLIANT GRIPPER MECHANISM

The traditional MIS (Minimally Invasive Surgery) tools design has a number of disadvantages
for the surgeon, including decreased dexterity only four degrees of freedom, non-intuitive
instrument control, poor vision, reduced force feedback, and poor ergonomics, which lead to

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 S.Premanand and Dr.G.Arunkumar

compromises in surgical technique. Complex movements, such as laparoscopic suturing, are

thus extremely challenging and have a long learning curve. This has limited the variety of
operations that can be completed with MIS. Although robotic instruments have six degrees of
freedom of movement meaning that they have joints that can move in a manner similar to the
human wrist, they have a number of limitations, such as lack of haptic force feedback,
cumbersome size and weight of the system, and a cost of more than $1 million per system. In
response to the above problems, S. Kota et al, proposed a compliant gripper mechanism for
surgical tools.
Compliant mechanisms incorporated into MIS Instruments enable precisely controlled
completion of complex movements with natural or intuitive hand movements and haptic
feedback. The monolithic nature of compliant mechanisms also has the advantage of no wear
debris, no pinch points, and no lubrication, all of which are critical in the sensitive internal
environment of the body. In addition, monolithic design simplifies the manufacturing and
sterilization processes. Another advantage of compliant instruments is the built-in return
spring action; a surgeon need only provide force in one direction to operate the device in both.
At the same time, the spring action complicates the issue of force feedback. The surgeon will
feel both the cutting/grasping force of the operation and the stiffness of the tool at the same
time and may have difficulty differentiating between them.

Figure 3 Prototype of the compliant gripper in its inactive mode (left) and gripping mode (right)

1.3. COMPLIANT CAR WIPER MECHANISM

Reverse Engineering Process carried out for Study of Car wiper parts and Dimensional Data
and the shape Compliant Wiper is optimized by Ansys to get Optimum Compliant design.
Compliant wiper design is developed by replacing joints at datum wiper hence the component
of wiper reduced to become Single Part only.

COMPLIANT
WIPER

Figure 4 Compliant Wiper

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 Review on Design of Compliant Mechanism for Automotive Application – A Toplogy
Optimization Approach

2. PROBLEM FORMULATION
The problem is the design of a compliant mechanism Diaphragm in a vacuum suspended
power booster Braking system coupled in which the input forces provided by a Push rod and
pedal force. This compliant mechanism replaces the existing rubber reinforced metal
structure, which amplifies the displacement and force of the power booster braking system.

3. OBJECTIVES OF OUR WORK

• To maximize the Geometric advantage (GA)
• Mechanical Advantage (MA) of the mechanism.
• To optimize the topology of the compliant mechanism using optimality criteria
method.
• To design a compliant Diaphragm to multiply the amount of force applied to master
cylinder by a factor greater than 3and also to achieve specific output displacement.

Figure 5 Over view of Vacuum Assisted Boosters in Braking system

The Power Booster increases the Force applied to the Master cylinder. If the Driver
applies 5Kgf of force to the Brake Pedal and normally the mechanical advantage of the Pedal
are 5 to 1 then there will be 25Kgf of force applied to the booster. In General, the Brake
booster will multiply the force applied to the master cylinder by a factor between 2 and 3.
That is if 20Kgf of force applied to the booster will turn into 40Kgf to 60Kgf and applies the
force to the Master cylinder
The Typical Vacuum booster has a Diaphragm with about 250 Square mm of surface area.
With the Pressure differential of 10psi a force of 453Kgf can be developed.

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 S.Premanand and Dr.G.Arunkumar

4. OBJECTIVE FUNCTION & CONSTRAINT EQUATIONS

A load ‘fa ’ applied at an input point ‘a’ representing the input force from the strain actuator.
The output deflection is equivalent to the mutual strain energy.
Δout = MSE = VbTK Ua 1
The input deflection is obtained by assuming input load is a Unit load.
Δin = UaTK Ua 2
T
Max (GA) = VbT K Ua / Ua K Ua
Constraint equations:
fa = K Ua 3
fb = K Vb 4
Volume (V) ≤ Vo
Bounds on the design variables
Mechanical advantage is defined as the ratio of output force by input force.
Mechanical Advantage = Fout / Fin

4.1. SOLUTION METHODOLOGY

I. Sequential Linear Programming (SLP) ( ii) Optimality Criteria method (OC)
II. Method of moving asymptotes (MMA). Among these optimization methodologies the
OC is chosen for our study, this is a best method to get Quick convergence topology
design and to achieve desired result.

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 Review on Design of Compliant Mechanism for Automotive Application – A Toplogy
Optimization Approach

4.1.1. Optimality criteria procedure

4.1.2. Design Process

5. CONCLUSION
I. The topology optimization method described in this work provides Vacuum Assisted
Booster Diaphragm designers with a systematic method for design of compliant
Diaphragm in Vacuum assisted Brake Booster
II. This method is completely general in that any shape and size design domain and any
combination of force and motion transformation from the Vacuum assisted Brake
Booster output can be prescribed. It is possible to application of other type of boosters.
III. The concept can be extended for other brake application parts in which the output is
Displacement and Force amplification is required with Desired Geometrical and
Mechanical advantage.

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 S.Premanand and Dr.G.Arunkumar

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author acknowledges those who have contributed in the field of elastic mechanisms for
the betterment of Automotive, Engineering industry and society

REFERENCES
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