A topology optimization method with constant volume fraction during iterations for design of compliant mechanisms

This study presents a topology optimization method for design of complaint mechanisms with maximum output displacement as the objective function. Unlike traditional approaches, one special characteristic of this method is that the volume fraction, which is defined as the calculated volume divided by the full volume, remains the same value throughout the optimization process based on the proposed pseudodensity and sensitivity number update scheme. The pseudodensity of each element is initially with the same value as the prespecified volume fraction constraint and can be decreased to a very small value or increased to one with a small increment. Two benchmark problems, the optimal design of a force-displacement inverter mechanism and a crunching mechanism, are provided as the illustrative examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results agree well with the previous studies. The proposed method is a general approach which can be used to synthesize the optimal designs of compliant mechanisms with better computational efficiency.