Publikationen (gesamt)

This paper presents a model-based approach for designing flexure hinges with increased deflection. It will be shown, that the use of a polynomial function as notch contour allow increasing the hinge's compliance and the ratio of deflection to the maximum bending stress. This can be explained through analytical und numerical investigations and the comparison of polynomial contours with common notch shapes. Furthermore a possibility for simplification is presented which can help to facilitate mechanical manufacturing of these flexure hinges, based on the resulting polynomials. The advantages of using polynomial functions as hinge contours as well as the influence of the simplification is discussed with regard to the ratio of maximum bending stress to deflection.

Today product development is dominated by reducing time and costs, which can be contradictory to the required high quality standards of products. The advantages of using computer-based tools enable the simulation of product properties and their optimisation before first physical prototypes are built. The presentation of those simulation results using (extended) Virtual Reality (VR) technologies is very helpful - especially if both the simulation tools and the VR representation are multimodal (e.g. visualisation extended by acoustics) - so that an enhanced immersion in the virtual scene becomes possible. Furthermore, this enables an easy comprehension and understanding of complex contexts and relations, which otherwise might be only clear for experts. Current VR-systems are often limited by only providing visual information. Even if a large amount of visual information is covered very well, only geometry and geometry-related behaviour (e.g. motion = geometry changes in time) or abstract information can be transferred. However, in many cases product development has to consider the acoustical behaviour of technical systems. Applications of this can be found in the noise engineering (noise control or noise limitation of products) as well as in the sound design engineering of products (so called "brand sound"). Due to the increasing importance of acoustics and the expectation of a more realistic immersion and presence in VR environments the sense of perception should be extended. For this a research group was built in Ilmenau consisting of mechanical engineers as well as acoustical engineers at Ilmenau University of Technology in the engineering design group as well at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology (IDMT)