Compliant Double-Spirals as Mechanical Elements : From Design to Application

Mechanical elements are fundamental components of mechanical systems, essential for transmitting forces, facilitating motion, and ensuring system functionality. The design of mechanical elements is a highly iterative process that involves finding the optimum combinations of design parameters, such as material composition and geometry, to enhance the efficiency and reliability of the system under specific conditions. This process is usually used to develop an element inspired by concepts already existing in engineering or nature. In this study, inspired by natural spirals experiencing high deformations through coiling and uncoiling, compliant double-spirals were developed. Using the finite-element method, the mechanical behavior of geometrically different double-spirals in response to various loading scenarios was simulated, aiming to investigate the relationship between their geometries and structural properties. 3D printing and mechanical testing were then used to study the performance of the developed double-spirals in practice. Easily adjustable design, multiple degrees of freedom, reversible non-linear extensibility, and tunable deformability are advantageous characteristics of double-spirals, which were observed in the conducted simulations and experiments. By taking advantage of these characteristics, double-spirals were used in the development of modular metastructures, adaptive grippers, a mechanical interlocking system, and an adaptive impact absorber to prove the potential of double-spirals as mechanical elements with widespread technical applications. Moreover, a software package was developed as a user-friendly tool to facilitate the design and modeling of double-spirals for future studies. This research provides a better understanding of double-spirals and their mechanical properties, which might be desirable in various engineering fields, such as robotics, aerospace, and medical engineering.

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