Modeling large planar deflections of flexible beams in compliant mechanisms using chained beam-constraint-model

Modeling large deflections has been one of the most fundamental problems in the research community of compliant mechanisms. Although many methods are available, there still exists a need for a method that is simple, accurate, and can be applied to a vast variety of large deflection problems. Based on the beam-constraint model (BCM), we propose a new method for modeling large deflections called chained BCM (CBCM), which divides a flexible beam into a few elements and models each element by BCM. The approaches for determining the strain energy stored in a deflected beam and the stress distributed on it are also presented within the framework of CBCM. Several typical examples were analyzed and the results show CBCMs capabilities of modeling various large deflections of flexible beams in compliant mechanisms. Generally, CBCM can serve as an efficient and versatile tool for solving large deflection problems in a variety of compliant mechanisms.