Dynamic performance and optimization research for six-link mechanism considering the coupling effect of flexible structure and wear clearances

The adverse effects of flexible structure and wear clearances on dynamic performance of mechanical systems cannot be ignored. At present, scholars have carried out extensive research on mechanism with clearance, but few consider the coupling effect of wear clearance and flexible structure on dynamic performance of mechanism. Therefore, this paper develops a dynamic model of six-link mechanism considering multiple wear clearances and flexible structure through Lagrange method. The influence of clearance size and frictional coefficient on dynamic performance and nonlinear characteristics of mechanism is investigated. In view of the adverse effects of wear clearances and flexible structure on the performance of mechanism, a new optimization method of mechanism based on simulated annealing algorithm (SAA) is proposed. This method takes the mass parameters of each component for mechanism as the design variables and minimizes the maximal wear depth of clearance as the objective function. The results indicate that the optimization method can reduce the vibration and error, and improve the overall dynamic performance of mechanism.