A grating tiling device is an optical element which can separate light into different wavelength components. Such devices are for example used in spectroscopy, and in optical laser devices for fusion confinement. Due to the high sensitivity and precision required in these devices, stability with respect to vibrations and temperature is of the most important aspects in their design.
Modeling and design of grating devices using traditional finite element analysis (FEA) require increasing computational effort, and is often limited by available computing capabilities. In the last two decades, multi-body system (MBS) simulations have instead become the most effective tool in modeling and analysis of such complex mechanical systems.
Research presented in the paper “Development of dynamics for design procedure of novel grating tiling device with experimental validation” make use of the FEATool Multiphysics toolbox, and its native MATLAB® FEA API, to develop a new efficient process for design of tiled grating devices. The authors suggest and explore an alternative MBS procedure in order to obtain an efficient design cycle (labeled dynamics for design DFD), by integrating the dynamics of interconnected systems, including nonlinearities, vibration analysis, and parameter estimation, with current design methodologies.
Specifically, a multi-body dynamics approach was used to calculate reaction forces acting on the flexible and flexure bodies of the grating tiling device. This approach defined a parametric feedback loop in MATLAB, where forces where used as input to a FEATool Multiphysics stress-strain structural mechanics script model in each iteration of the loop.
The optimum design could be achieved by changing materials in the flexible and flexure bodies and system dimensions and iterating until reaching the maximum range of grating movement parameter. As seen in the diagram below the FEATool simulation software was used as a central key component in the simulation loop made possible due to its MATLAB scripting and programming API, and built-in translation of GUI models to MATLAB simulation scripts.
The authors concluded that the dynamics for design (DFD) procedure, which includes the use of the FEATool Multiphysics toolbox, was a very effective way to design a grating tiling device which can achieve the required performance without breaking down.
References
- Bai Q., et al. Development of Dynamics for Design Procedure of Novel Grating Tiling Device with Experimental Validation, Journal of Applied Sciences, 11(24), 11716, 2021, doi: 10.3390/app112411716.