A Spatial Parametric Model For The Nonlinear Stiffness Characteristics Of Flexure Strips

The flexure strip is commonly used to provide support stiffness in flexure mechanisms for precision applications. While the flexure strip is often treated in a simplified form, e.g. by assuming planar deformation or linearized stiffness, the deformation in practice is spatial and sufficiently large that nonlinear effects due to the geometrical stiffness are significant. This paper presents an understandable analytical model for the nonlinear stiffness characteristics of flexure strips that deform spatially due to a general 3-D loading condition. This model provides closed-form expressions in a mixed stiffness and compliance matrix format that is tailored to flexure mechanism analysis. The effects of bending, elongation, and torsion deformation are taken into account. The geometrically nonlinear effects of the model are verified numerically. The approach for deriving closed-form solutions in a nonlinear context is detailed in this paper. Based on the Hellinger–Reissner variational principle, it can also be extended to the analysis of multi-flexure strip mechanisms. This is demonstrated with the case of a spatially deforming parallelogram flexure mechanism.