Abstract
In this article the inverse static analysis of a two degrees of freedom planar mechanism equipped with spiral springs is presented. Such analysis aims to detect the entire set of equilibrium configurations of the mechanism once the external load is assigned. While on the one hand the presence of flexural pivots represents a novelty, on the other it extremely complicates the problem, since it brings the two state variables in the solving equations to appear as arguments of both trigonometric and linear functions. The proposed procedure eliminates one variable and leads to write two equations in one unknown only. The union of the root sets of such equations constitutes the global set of solutions of the problem.
Particular attention has been reserved to the analysis of the “reliability” of the final equations: it has been sought the existence of critical situations, in which the solving equations hide solutions or yield false ones. A numerical example is provided. Also, in Appendix it is shown a particular design of the mechanism that offers computational advantages.
