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MEAM Seminar: “Nonlinear Modeling, Synthesis, and Design-for-Additive Manufacturing of Smart Compliant Mechanisms”

January 20 at 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM
Details
Date: January 20, 2026
Time: 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM
Event Category: Seminar
  • Event Tags:,
  • Organizer
    Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics
    Phone: 215-746-1818
    Venue
    Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall 3330 Walnut Street
    Philadelphia
    PA 19104
    Google Map

    Compliant mechanisms have been the subject of intense research in recent decades. Making compliant mechanisms “smart” to form flexible, adaptive structures is the focus of my research group, with applications ranging from medical devices to aerospace structures. This seminar will describe recent work on modeling and synthesis approaches for compliant mechanisms with both superelastic material behavior and large deformations, which have not been considered previously in the literature. This approach allows for design of compliant mechanism-based metamaterials with highly nonlinear tailorable stiffness and enhanced energy absorption. Additionally, the presentation will cover our method for systematic design of active compliant mechanisms that change shape on demand due to application of external stimulus such as magnetic field. Methods to model and design soft magneto active elastomer devices produced via additive manufacturing will be described. These devices are designed to be robust to geometry variation inherent in additively manufacturing processes.