New empirical stiffness equations for corner-filleted flexure hinges

Abstract

This paper investigates the existing stiffness equations for corner-filleted flexure hinges. Three empirical stiffness equations for corner-filleted flexure hinges (each fillet radius, r, equals to 0.1 l; l, the length of a corner-filleted flexure hinge) are formulated based on finite element analysis results for the purpose of overcoming these investigated limitations. Three comparisons made with the existing compliance/stiffness equations and finite element analysis (FEA) results indicate that the proposed empirical stiffness equations enlarge the range of rate of thickness (t, the minimum thickness of a corner-filleted flexure hinge) to length (l), t/l (0.02 ≤ t/l ≤ 1) and ensure the accuracy for each empirical stiffness equation under large deformation. The errors are within 6% when compared to FEA results