Perfect elasticity is not achievable in real-life situations, so spring stiffness is not perfectly constant. In this paper, we present a new concept to design the non-linear stiffness terms of mechanical structures while keeping the nominal stiffness constant. We introduce three methods to design and tune linear and nonlinear elastic behavior in the context of compliant mechanisms and we present possible mechanical realizations. A selected design is modeled using the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. Numerical simulations and experimental measurements show a good match with the theoretical model. We then present applications of our stiffness tuning methods to mechanical metamaterials, mechanical resonators, and mechanical computation.


Tuning Stiffness Nonlinearity: Theory and Applications

Division / Sponsors: 
Design Engineering Division and Computers & Information In Engineering Division


Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IDETC-CIE/IDETC-CIE2020/volume/83907

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