Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics University of Pennsylvania

A range of design problems at the research group of (Suresh) G. K. Ananthasuresh

A mechanical designer exercises two important choices: material and shape. We do exactly that. Based on the principles of mechanics of solids and kinematics and using the mathematical tools of optimization, we formulate and solve a number of problems where systematically determine the shape and/or material for a variety of design objectives.

A number of analysis problems in elastic mechanics have been solved in the literature. When we try to design elastic solids, a number of synthesis or inverse problems arise. Most of our work is therefore focused on inverse problems of different kinds.

We apply the compliant design paradigm at macro (product design), meso (100 microns to cm), micro (MEMS), and nano (proteins) applications.

We also do microfabrication.

Current

• Regularization of Signorini contact for the design of contact-aided compliant mechanisms
• Design of model proteins
• Design-dependent material selection
• Micromanipulation
• Non-commutative sequences of rotations

Past

• Multi-component topology optimization by optimal embedding of rigid bodies
• A metric for distributed compliance in topology optimization
• Electro-thermal-compliant mechanism design
• Vision-based force sensors
• A Gaussian distribution function based material interpolation for multi-material topology optimization
• Compliance in product design
• Comprehensive modeling of thermal microactuators
• Shape optimization of compliant mechanisms
• Design of geometrically nonlinear compliant mechanisms for path generation
• Strength-considerations in compliant mechanism design
• Design of bars and beams for desired mode shapes
• Laser micromachining
• Silicon-on-insulator wafer based bulk micromachining with a masked doping step
• Mask synthesis for MEMS
• Design and fabrication of an electro-magnet actuated pump in low-temperature-cofired-ceramic (LTCC) tapes
• Electro-thermal-compliant (ETC) mechanisms
• Kinematic and kinetostatic design of constrained serial chain mechanisms
• Cam-operated indexing mechanisms
• Optimal synthesis of planar and spatial mechanisms