Deformation Rules of the Contact Surface between Flexible Units

The flexible unit division method is commonly adopted for compliant mechanism analysis. It is assumed that there is only even pressure between flexible units and neglect the deformation error of contact surface between flexible units, which is caused by concentrated force. The contact surface deformation rules are studied by taking compliant rocking beam as an example. Rigidity model of the compliant rocking beam is established using the common unit stiffness matrix method. By comparing the computed results with that of ANSYS software, it is pointed out that there will be a relatively greater analysis error by neglecting the contact surface micro-deformation between flexible units. After compensating this kind of surface micro-deformation in theoretical analysis, the error is greatly reduced. And then, the further experiments are completed by altering its structure parameters. Results have depicted the contact surface deformation rules between flexible units under four different structure parameters. Some useful suggestions are also presented about how to reduce the disadvantageous effects caused by contact surface deformation for compliant mechanism design.