Design of bistable arches by determining critical points in the force-displacement characteristic

Palathingal, Safvan and Ananthasuresh, GK (2017) Design of bistable arches by determining critical points in the force-displacement characteristic. In: MECHANISM AND MACHINE THEORY, 117 . pp. 175-188.

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Abstract

The boundary conditions, as-fabricated shape, and height-to-depth ratio of an arch characterize its bistability. We investigate this by modeling planar arches with torsion and translational springs at the pin joints anchored to the ground. A pinned-pinned arch, a special case of the model, has superior bistable characteristics as compared to a fixed-fixed bistable arch, which is also a particular case of the model. Arches with revolute flexures at the ends retain bistable characteristics of the pinned-pinned arches while being amenable for easy fabrication. However, equilibrium equations for such arches become intractable for analytical solution unlike the extreme cases of fixed-fixed and pinned-pinned arches. Therefore, a semi-analytical method for analysis and shape-synthesis of bistable arches with general boundary conditions is developed in this work. This is done by numerically determining critical points in the force-displacement curve. These critical points correspond to switching and switch-back forces and travel between the two states thereby enabling synthesis for desired behavior. We present design and optimization examples of bistable arches with a variety of boundary conditions and as-fabricated shape without prestress. We also propose two approaches to design a new class of asymmetric bistable arches. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	MECHANISM AND MACHINE THEORY
Additional Information:	Copy right for this article belongs to the PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, THE BOULEVARD, LANGFORD LANE, KIDLINGTON, OXFORD OX5 1GB, ENGLAND
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Mechanical Engineering
Date Deposited:	16 Sep 2017 06:30
Last Modified:	21 Feb 2019 08:54
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/57778

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