Precision Engineering 34 (2010) 408418

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Precision Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/precision

Closed-form compliance equations of lleted V-shaped exure hinges for

compliant mechanism design
Y. Tian a,b, , B. Shirinzadeh b , D. Zhang a
a
b

School of Mechanical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China

Robotics and Mechatronics Research Laboratory, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 22 April 2009
Received in revised form
16 September 2009
Accepted 2 October 2009
Available online 31 October 2009
Keywords:
Flexure hinge
Compliance
Accuracy of motion
Compliant mechanism

a b s t r a c t
This paper presents the closed-form compliance equations for the lleted V-shaped exure hinges. The
in-plane and out-of-plane compliances of the exure hinges are developed based on the Castiglianos
second theorem. The accuracy of motion, denoted by the midpoint compliance of the exure hinges, is also
derived for optimized geometric design. The inuences of the geometric parameters on the characteristics
of the exure hinges are investigated. It is noted that the lleted V-shaped exure hinges have diverse
ranges of compliance corresponding to different lleted radius R and angle . These types of hinges
can provide both higher and lower stiffnesses than circular exure hinges. This makes lleted V-shaped
exure hinges very useful for wide potential applications with different requirements. The nite element
analysis is used to verify the established closed-form compliance equations for these lleted V-shaped
exure hinges.
2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Flexure hinges are commonly utilized in the compliant mechanisms for applications in micro-/nano-instruments, machines and systems such as scanning tunnel microscope, X-ray lithography, mask alignment, and micro-manufacturing [18], where high positioning
accuracy and resolution are the necessary and crucial requirements to full specied tasks. Flexure-based mechanisms can overcome
the shortcomings such as stiction, friction, and backlash which generally exist in the conventional mechanisms with sliding and rolling
bearings. Thus, exure-based mechanisms are capable of smooth motion, free of friction and lubrication [914]. The positioning accuracy
of exure-based mechanisms can be further improved by utilizing laser-interferometry-based sensing technique for independent position
and displacement measurement and tracking [15,16]. In order to obtain high performance exure-based mechanisms, CAD (computer
aided design) methodology is usually utilized to conduct the mechanical design and optimization, and to develop the xture structure
using 3-2-1 locating and clamping technique for holding such monolithic mechanisms [17,18]. With the aid of CNC (computer numerical control) and WEDM (wire electrical discharge machining) techniques, exure hinges can be monolithically manufactured with other
links of the entire mechanism. This makes it possible to achieve high machining accuracy and eliminate the errors of assembly. Furthermore, the geometric and dimensional tolerances can be exactly controlled, and the positioning accuracy of the entire system is
improved. In the precision positioning, the exure-based mechanisms are also used to enlarge the small displacement of the actuator
or the small output force to driving moving platform [1924]. Unlike conventional revolute joints, exure hinges have nite stiffness
in the output direction. Therefore, the rotational center will offset when the exure hinges generate output displacement. This is the
negative aspect of using exure-based mechanisms [25,26]. In order to achieve efcient compliant mechanisms for applications in nanomanipulation, it is important to correctly choose the geometric parameters and to predict and optimise the performance of exure
hinges.
In exure-based mechanisms, exure hinges are generally made of the rectangular blank removing two symmetric cut-outs with the
proles of circular, corner-lleted, and elliptical proles as shown in Fig. 1. These kinds of exure hinges have low rotational stiffness
about one axis providing displacement and high stiffness in other degrees of freedom. The analytical solutions for compliance in these
kinds of exure hinges have been investigated in the past. Paros and Weisbord [27] presented the closed-form equations and curves of
the circular exure hinges for both symmetric single-axis and two-axis congurations based on the theory of mechanics of materials. The

Corresponding author at: School of Mechanical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China. Tel.: +86 22 27405561; fax: +86 22 27406260.
E-mail address: meytian@tju.edu.cn (Y. Tian).
0141-6359/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.precisioneng.2009.10.002

Y. Tian et al. / Precision Engineering 34 (2010) 408418

409

Fig. 1. Three traditional exure hinges.

angular and linear compliances were developed for bending and axial loads of the in-plane and out-of-plane, respectively. For each case,
the solutions were expressed in both exact and simplied forms. Using the same method, Smith et al. [28] developed the closed-form
equations for symmetric single-axis semi-elliptical exure hinges. It was noted that the performance of the elliptical exure hinges were
within the range constrained by the circular exure hinges and the leaf hinges in terms of compliance. The nite element analysis and
experimental tests were carried out to verify model predictions over a range of the typical geometries for many exure hinge designs.
Using nite element analysis, Xu and King [29] investigated the performance of the circular, corner-lleted and elliptical exure hinges
in terms of motion, stiffness and stress concentrations. Compared with the corner-lleted exure hinges, the elliptical exure hinges
have less stress when the deections are the same. The right circular exure hinges have the highest stiffness, and the corner-lleted
exure hinges have the lowest stiffness. Lobontiu et al. [30] and Lobontiu and Garcia [31] derived the closed-form compliance equations
for corner-lleted exure hinges using Castiglianos second theorem. Similar to elliptical exure hinges, corner-lleted exure hinges also
range within the domain conned by the right circular exure hinges and the leaf exure hinges in terms of compliance. The nite element
analysis and experimental tests were used to conrm the model predictions. It was noted that the corner-lleted exure hinges are more
compliant and induce lower stress, however these are less accurate in rotation compared with the right circular exure hinges. Utilizing
a similar approach, Lobontiu et al. [32,33] developed the closed-form equations for a symmetric conic-section such as circular, elliptic,
parabolic, and hyperbolic exure hinges. The in-plane and out-of-plane compliance equations of the exure hinges as well as the motion
accuracy were derived for specic conic proles. The nite element analysis and experimental tests were utilized to examine the model
predictions. Wu and Zhou [34] introduced a different intermediate variable and presented the concise closed-form equations for circular
exure hinges. The comparison with equations developed by Paros was carried out. Tseytlin [35] presented the closed-form compliance
equations for monolithic exure hinges with circular and elliptical sections. The inverse conformal mapping of circular approximating
contour was utilized to derive the analytical solutions. The predictions of the developed models were likely to be much closer to the
nite element analysis and experimental data. Schotborgh et al. [36] described the dimensionless design graphs for three exure hinges

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Y. Tian et al. / Precision Engineering 34 (2010) 408418

with the proles such as circular, corner-lleted beam and cross-section. These plots can be used as a design tool to determine the
optimal geometries for exure-based mechanism designs. Vallance et al. [37] provided a unied geometric model for exure hinge using
quadratic rational Bezier curves. The general representation of the geometry has great advantages in the computer aided design and
analysis.
The thorough review of exure hinges has indicated that a number of notch proles have been utilized to improve the performance,
and analytical/empirical equations have also been developed to predict the behaviour of such hinges. This paper presents novel lleted
V-shaped exure hinges and the closed-form compliance equations for the exure hinges. Based on the Castiglianos second theorem,
the in-plane and out-of-plane compliances of the exure hinges are developed. The accuracy of motion, denoted by the midpoint compliance of the lleted V-shaped exure hinges, is also derived for the purpose of optimized mechanical design. The inuences of the
geometric parameters on the characteristics of these types of exure hinges are investigated. It is noted that the lleted V-shaped
exure hinges have a large compliance ranges corresponding to different lleted radius R and angle . This makes such exure hinges
capable of being used in wide potential applications with different requirements including high motion accuracy and large displacement. The nite element analysis is used to verify the established closed-form compliance equations for lleted V-shaped exure
hinges.
2. Compliance models
The model of the lleted V-shaped exure hinge is shown in Fig. 2. The symmetric proles within the exure hinge are formed
by removing two lleted triangular prisms from the rectangular blank. Thus, for the V-shaped exure hinge: b denotes the width of
the exure hinge, h denotes the height of the exure hinge, t denotes the minimum thickness of the exure hinge, l denotes the half
length of the exure hinge, c denotes the height of the prole and is equal to (h t)/2, R denotes the radius of the circular section, and
 denotes the separation angle of the prole from the horizontal axis. The Cartesian coordinate frame is utilized, where the origin is
located at the minimum thickness of the exure hinge, and the x and y axes are in the longitudinal and height directions, respectively.
The boundary conditions are chosen such that the left end of the exure hinge is xed, and the external loads act at the midpoint of right
end.
The comparisons of the proposed lleted V-shaped exure hinge with circular and leaf exure hinges are shown in Fig. 3. It can be seen
from Fig. 3(a) that the lleted V-shaped exure hinge possesses the capability of higher stiffness than circular and leaf exure hinges when
the lleted radius R equals to l/4 and angle  equals to /4. As the lleted radius R increases and reaches up to l as shown in Fig. 3(b), the
stiffness of the lleted V-shaped exure hinge will reduce and remain in the range constrained by the circular and leaf exure hinges. Let
the lleted radius R equals to l and change the angle  from the range from 0 to 90 as shown in Fig. 3(c). The lleted V-shaped exure
hinge can change from leaf hinge into right circular one.
In order to derive closed-form compliance equations of lleted V-shaped exure hinges, the Castiglianos second theorem is adopted
and written as follows:
=

U
,
P

(1)

where  is the deformation due to the applied load, P is the applied load, and U is the deformation energy and given by:
U=

1
2

M2
dx
EI

(for bending moment),

Fig. 2. Geometric parameters and loads of lleted V-shaped exure hinge.

(2a)

Y. Tian et al. / Precision Engineering 34 (2010) 408418

411

Fig. 3. Comparisons of three exure hinges.

U=

1
2

F2
dx
EA

(for force),

(2b)

where E is the Youngs modulus, M is the bending moment, I is the moment of area, and A is the cross-sectional area.
Based on the established Cartesian coordinate frame and the geometric relationships, the upper prole equation for the lleted V-shaped
exure hinge is given as follows:


t
R2 x 2 ,
2
t
x tan  sign(x) + R(1 sec ) + ,
2

R+

y(x) =

0 |x| R sin ,

(3)

R sin  < |x| l,

where sign() is the sign function and dened by:

sign(x) =

1,
x 0,
1, x < 0.

Thus, the moment of area I of the exure hinge can be written as follows:
Iz =

2by3 (x)
3

Iy =

b3 y(x)
6

(about z-axis),

(4a)

(about y-axis).

(4b)

2.1. Angular compliance about z-axis

The lleted V-shaped exure hinge subjected to the bending moment Mz will rotate about z-axis, and the angular displacement is
denoted by z . Based on the Castiglianos second theorem, the compliance equation is developed as follows:

3
z
=

Mz
2EbR2

2 + 2

 2 cot 
2 (1 + )2

6(1 + )
(3 + 2 + 2 ) sin 
+
+
arctan
2
2 )(1 + cos )
3/2
(2
+

(1 + cos )
(2 + 2 )
(1 + ) sin 

2+

tan
2

cot 
(1 + cos )



(5)

where = t/2R, and  = t/2c.

The application of force Fy at the free end of the lleted V-shaped exure hinge can generate bending moment acting on the hinge and
may be written as follows:
M = Fy (l x),

l x l.

(6)

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Y. Tian et al. / Precision Engineering 34 (2010) 408418

Substituting Eq. (6) into Eq. (2) and replacing Iz by Eq. (4a), the compliance equation about z-axis is obtained as follows:

3 + 3( ) cos 
z

=
Fy
2EbR sin 

 2 cot 
2 (1 + )2

2 + 2

cot 

(1 + cos )

6(1 + )
(3 + 2 + 2 ) sin 
+
+
arctan
2
3/2
(2 + 2 )(1 + cos )
(1 + cos )
(2 + 2 )
(1 + ) sin 



2+

tan
2

(7)

where l = (( + ( ) cos )/ sin )R.

2.2. Linear compliance along y-axis
The lleted V-shaped exure hinge can generate translation along y-axis due to the bending moment Mz . In order to calculate the
displacement using the Castiglianos second theorem, the virtual force Fy should be superimposed at the free end of the exure hinge. The
total bending moment is given by:
M = Mz + Fy (l x),

l x l.

(8)

Substituting Eq. (8) into Eq. (2), the compliance along y-axis due to bending moment Mz is obtained as:
3 + 3( ) cos 
y

=
Mz
2EbRsin 

 2 cot 
2 (1 + )2

2 + 2

cot 
(1 + cos )

6(1 + )
(3 + 2 + 2 ) sin 
+
+
arctan
2
3/2
(2 + 2 )(1 + cos )
(1 + cos )
(2 + 2 )
(1 + ) sin 



2+

tan
2

(9)

The application of force Fy can also cause the lleted V-shaped exure hinges translate along y-axis, and the linear compliance is established
as follows:
3
y
=

Fy
2Eb

 + ( ) cos 

4(1 + )

(2 + 2 ) 2 sin2 

[ + ( ) cos ]

sin2 

2 

2 + 2

(3 + 2 + 2 ) sin 
6(1 + )
+
arctan
+
2
3/2
(2 + 2 )(1 + cos )
(1 + cos )
(2 + 2 )
(1 + ) sin 

2 cot 
2 (1 + )2

2(1 + )
(2 + 2 )

sin2  cot 

 2 (1 + cos )



arctan

3/2

 

cot 

2+

tan
2

(1 + )
+
+ 2 cot  ln
2
(1
+ cos )
(1 + cos )
3



2+

tan
2

32 + 6 + 1
2
2
(
+
2)(1 + cos )
(1 + cos )
1+


+ 2 2

 + ( ) cos 
sin 

(1 + )sin 
1 + cos 


sin 


cot2 

(10)

The shear force induced by Fy can also cause the exure hinge translate along y-axis, and the linear compliance due to shear force is
obtained as follows:

1
y
=
Fy
Gb

2(1 + )

2 + 2



arctan

2+

tan
2

(1 + )
 + cot  ln
(1 + cos )

(11)

where G is the shear modulus.

2.3. Angular compliance about y-axis
When the lleted V-shaped exure hinge is subjected to bending moment My and force Fz , the rotation about y-axis will occur. This is
dened as out-of-plane deformation which is undesirable for high precision motion of a exure hinge. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce
the compliance about y-axis for the optimization of mechanical design. The angular compliances about y-axis due to bending moment My
and force Fz are respectively developed as follows:

y
12
=
My
Eb3

2(1 + )

2 + 2



arctan

y
12R
[ + ( ) cos ]
=
Fz
Eb3  sin 

2+

tan
2

2(1 + )

2 + 2

(1 + )
 + cot  ln
(1 + cos )


arctan

2+

tan
2

(1 + )
 + cot  ln
(1 + cos )

(12)

(13)

2.4. Linear compliance along z-axis

Similar to the bending moment Mz and force Fy that lead to a linear displacement of the exure hinge, the bending moment My and
force Fz can also result in the linear displacement of the lleted V-shaped exure hinge along z-axis. However, the displacement of the

Y. Tian et al. / Precision Engineering 34 (2010) 408418

413

exure hinge along z-axis belongs to the out-of-plane motion and will reduce the motion accuracy. Therefore, the linear compliances along
z-axis due to the bending moment My and force Fz should be limited to a small range in the mechanical design of such a exure hinge. The
linear compliances along z-axis under the bending moment My and force Fz are respectively given as follows:


12R
z
[ + ( ) cos ]
=
My
Eb3  sin 

z
12R2 [ + ( ) cos ]
=
Fz
Eb3  2 sin2 
6R2
+ 3
Eb

2(1 + )

2 + 2

2 + 2

arctan

+ cot 

[ + ( ) cos ]
sin2 
 2 sin2 

2+

tan
2

2+

tan
2



(2 + 2 + cos ) sin  4(1 + )

arctan



2(1 + )



2 + 2 arctan


2

2 cot 

(1 + )
 + cot  ln
(1 + cos )

(1 + )
 + cot  ln
(1 + cos )

2+

tan
2

(14)

+ (1 + 4 + 22 )

 + ( ) cos 
sin 
 sin 

(1 + )
(1 + sec ) + 2(1 + sec ) cot  ln
.
(1 + cos )
2

(15)

Further, the linear compliance along z-axis due to the shear force acting on the end of the lleted V-shaped exure hinge may be obtained
as follows:

z
1
=
Fz
Gb

2(1 + )

2 + 2



arctan

2+

tan
2

(1 + )
 + cot  ln
(1 + cos )

(16)

2.5. Linear compliance along x-axis

The lleted V-shaped exure hinge will exhibit the deformation along x-axis, when the force Fx acts on the end of the exure hinge.
The compliance along x-axis may be developed as follows:


x
1
=
Fx
Eb

2(1 + )

2 + 2


arctan

2+

tan
2

(1 + )
 + cot  ln
(1 + cos )

(17)

3. Accuracy of motion
The ideal revolute joint would have the stationary rotational center, but the exure hinges will exhibit deformation along the entire
length of the exible component. This indicates that the rotational center of the exure hinge drifts during the displacement output. This
is undesirable for the purpose of generating precise motion, especially in the amplication mechanism of the displacement and force.
This will lead to the actual amplication factors being different from the desired values. The drift of the rotational center also causes the
designed mechanism being unable to full the requirements, and may even cause design failure within the mechanism. Therefore, more
attentions must be directed towards the motion accuracy of the exure hinges within the compliant mechanism designs. In order to carry
out a quantitative analysis, the compliance of the center of the exure hinge is utilized to describe the motion accuracy. The larger the
compliance of the center point, the lower the motion accuracy of the exure hinge. In order to calculate the displacements of the center
point of the lleted V-shaped exure hinge, the virtual forces Fx and Fy are added at the rotational center. Based on the Castiglianos second
theorem, the motion accuracy of the exure hinge can be derived. It must be pointed out that the shear effect is negligible small due to the
slender section of the exure hinges, especially in the calculation of the motion accuracy, where the value is only half of that in the total
compliance computation. Thus, the shear effect is neglected in the following calculation.

Fig. 4. Finite element model and boundary conditions of exure hinge.

414

Y. Tian et al. / Precision Engineering 34 (2010) 408418

The application of bending moment Mz can induce a displacement of the center of the lleted V-shaped exure hinge, and thus the
compliance of the rotational center may be derived as:
y
3
=
Mz
2EbR



cot2 
2

1
1
1+
+

2
1 + cos 
22
2(1 + cos )


1

(1 + )
1 + cos 

cot 
2

 2 + ( ) cos 
2 (1 + )2 sin 

sin 
(1 + cos )

where y denotes the displacement along y-axis of the rotational center.

Fig. 5. Stiffness of lleted V-shaped exure hinge for different conditions.

(18)

Y. Tian et al. / Precision Engineering 34 (2010) 408418

415

Fig. 5. (Continued ).

The application of force Fy at the end of the exure hinge can also cause the translation of rotational center. The compliance of the
rotational center is obtained as follows:
y
3
=
Fy
2Eb

 + ( ) cos 
 sin 

2(1 + )


+

2 + 2

1
1+
1

+
2
1 + cos 
22
2(1 + cos )

1+
(2

3/2
+ 2 )



arctan

2+

tan
2

 + ( ) cos  + 2 sin2 
3( + ( ) cos )

2 sin (1 + cos )

2(1 + ) sin 

++

 

32 + 6 + 1

2 + 4)(1 + cos )
2
(2
2(1 + cos )
1+

 + ( ) cos   sin2 
2

2(1 + cos )

(1 + )
cot  + ln
cot3 
(1 + cos )
2

sin 

cot 

(19)

The closed-form equation for the motion accuracy of the rotational center due to the force Fx is derived as follows:

x
1
=
Fx
2Eb

2(1 + )

2 + 2



arctan


2+
tan
2

(1 + )
 + cot  ln
(1 + cos )

(20)

where x denotes the displacement of the rotational center along x-axis.

4. Finite element analysis and validation
In order to verify the established closed-form compliance equations for the lleted V-shaped exure hinges, the nite element analysis
is carried out to calculate the compliances and motion accuracy. The ANSYS software is utilized to perform the nite element analysis.
The lleted V-shaped exure hinge consists of two symmetrical notches with a length of 20 mm on each side. The minimum thickness of the exure hinge is t that varies among 0.2, 0.5, and 1.0 mm, and each side of the exure hinge is monolithic with a block
15 mm in length. The width of the exure hinge is chosen as 10 mm. There are generally two methods to conduct the 3D mechanism/structure analysis: one is using the 3D element and the other is using 2D element with dened thickness. The later method has
the advantages of high computation efciency with acceptable calculation accuracy. Thus, the 2D method is utilized in the compu-

416

Y. Tian et al. / Precision Engineering 34 (2010) 408418

tational analysis of the developed lleted V-shaped exure hinges. The nite element model of the exure hinge is shown in Fig. 4,
where the two dimensional 10 node element named Plane 82 is utilized to mesh the exure hinge and the width 10 mm of the exure hinge is dened in the attribution of the element. This kind of element has quadratic displacement behavior and is well suited to
model irregular shapes such as exure hinges. Each node has two degrees of freedom which are translations in the x and y directions.
In order to improve the computational accuracy, the mapping mesh method is utilized and the element sizes are different for each
part of the exure hinge and about quintile of the minimum dimension of the local region. In each static analysis, the boundary conditions are chosen as: the left block is xed for all degrees of freedom, and the force is applied at the midpoint of the free end of the

Fig. 6. Motion accuracy of lleted V-shaped exure hinge for different conditions.

Y. Tian et al. / Precision Engineering 34 (2010) 408418

417

Table 1
Comparison between nite element analysis and analytical solution.
R (mm)

 ( )

t (mm)

2
4
6
8
10
2
4
6
8
10
2
4
6
8
10

15
30
45
60
75
15
30
45
60
75
15
30
45
60
75

1
1
1
1
1
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2

Stiffness (105 N/m)

Motion accuracy (107 N/m)

FEA

Analytic

Error (%)

FEA

Analytic

Error (%)

6.7824
6.7146
5.6638
4.9317
4.4131
1.4710
1.2534
1.0366
0.9001
0.8058
0.1736
0.1306
0.1071
0.0929
0.0838

7.2653
7.3202
6.0704
5.2144
4.6223
1.5454
1.3136
1.0729
0.9244
0.8229
0.1787
0.1332
0.1085
0.0937
0.0837

6.65
8.27
6.70
5.42
4.53
4.81
4.58
3.38
2.63
2.08
2.85
1.95
1.29
0.85
0.12

0.8122
1.2116
0.9128
0.6835
0.5397
0.3314
0.3589
0.2491
0.1848
0.1454
0.0908
0.0638
0.0425
0.0313
0.0243

0.7218
1.4169
1.0670
0.7752
0.5994
0.3091
0.3934
0.2686
0.1965
0.1537
0.0918
0.0663
0.0438
0.0323
0.0255

12.51
14.49
14.45
11.83
9.95
7.21
8.78
7.25
5.94
5.40
1.12
3.95
2.97
3.10
4.77

exure hinge. The material for exure hinge is chosen as the spring steel alloy with Youngs modulus of 210 GPa and Poissons ratio of
0.28.
The complete set of the results for nite element analysis is shown in Table 1. To examine the compliance predicted from the developed
closed-form equations of the lleted V-shaped exure hinge, the errors between the results of the nite element analysis and the Eqs.
(10) and (19) are provided. It must be mentioned that the stiffness, reciprocal of the compliance, is adopted to carry out the comparisons.
It can be seen that the results between the nite element analysis and closed-form equations are in good agreement with the maximum
deviation being less than 15%. This indicates that the closed-form equations developed for lleted V-shaped exure hinge are correct and
can be used for the computational analysis and design of the compliant mechanisms.
5. Numerical simulations and discussions
The established closed-form compliance equations for the lleted V-shaped exure hinges can be utilized to investigate the inuences
of the geometric parameters on compliance and motion accuracy. This is important for understanding the characteristics of the lleted
V-shaped exure hinges and the optimized mechanical design of compliant mechanisms to achieve high static and dynamic performance.
For the numerical calculations, the length l of the lleted V-shaped exure hinge remains constant, and the angle , radius R, and minimum
thickness t vary within a range for practical exure hinge. It should be emphasized that the actual height h of the lleted V-shaped exure
hinge varies with the change of the angle  and the radius R. The numerical simulations are carried out based on the exure hinge with
the length of 20 mm and width of 10 mm. The material for the lleted V-shaped exure hinge is also chosen as spring steel with Youngs
modulus of 210 GPa. The calculation results for different loads are shown in Fig. 5. It is noted that the output motions of the exure hinge,
rotation about z-axis and translation along y-axis, are more dominant than the motions in other axes, especially in the small range of
minimum thickness t. The stiffness of the exure hinge decreases with the decreasing angle  and the ratio . The lleted V-shaped exure
hinge possesses a wide stiffness range which can be larger than that of the circular exure hinge, and span between the circular exure
hinges and the leaf exure hinges. The motion accuracy of the lleted V-shaped exure hinge is shown in Fig. 6. It is noted that the inuences
of the ratio of the exure hinge on the motion accuracy due to the bending moment and forces are different. For small values of , there
is a little effect on the motion accuracy for the bending moment and force Fy , and large inuence on the compliance induced by force Fx .
However, larger has the inverse inuence on the motion accuracy, i.e., the motion accuracy for the bending moment Mz and force Fy are
more sensitive to the change of than that for the force Fx . The angle  also has signicant effect on the motion accuracy of the lleted
V-shaped exure hinge. It is noted that as angle  becomes smaller, its inuence on the motion accuracy for bending moment and forces
is reduced. Whereas, the larger angle  has relatively large inuence on the motion accuracy, especially for the motion accuracy due to the
force Fx . Considering the performance criteria of compliance and motion accuracy, the lleted V-shaped exure hinge can provide for a
trade-off between large deformation and high motion accuracy by changing the geometric parameters such as lleted radius R and angle
.
6. Conclusions
The closed-form compliance equations for the lleted V-shaped exure hinge have been developed using the Castiglianos second
theorem. Based on the established models, the computational analysis has been carried out to investigate the inuence of the geometric
parameters on the characteristics of the lleted V-shaped exure hinges. It is noted that the stiffnesses of the lleted V-shaped exure hinge
increase with the increasing parameters and . The stiffness of the lleted V-shaped exure hinge has diverse sensitivity for change in the
parameters and  within the given range. The motion accuracy also shows the similar characteristics for the changes of the parameters
and . The nite element analysis has been used to verify the developed models. The results between the nite element analysis and the
analytical solutions are in good agreement, which indicates that it is practical to utilize the closed-form equations for the lleted V-shaped
exure hinge. These form the tools for stiffness prediction in compliant mechanism designs.
The proposed lleted V-shaped exure hinges can converge to right circular hinges (at R = l and  = 90 ) and leaf hinges (at  0). The
developed closed-form equations for the lleted V-shaped exure hinge can be utilized as guidelines for the compliant mechanism design,
where the relative large deformation and high motion accuracy need to be achieved simultaneously.

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Y. Tian et al. / Precision Engineering 34 (2010) 408418

Acknowledgements
This research is supported by Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery under Grant Nos. DP0450944 and DP0666366, ARC Linkage
Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities under Grant Nos. LE0347024 and LE0775692, and National Natural Science Foundation of China
under Grant No. 50705064.
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