A parametric model for rotational compliance of a cracked right circular flexure hinge

•A parametric model of rotational compliance for cracked right circular flexure hinge is presented.•The whole rotational compliance is the superposition of original and crack induced compliance.•Original compliance of flexure hinge is calculated through the existed equation.•The crack induced compliant increase is achieved with a SERR Method.•The model is validated by experiment.

This paper presents the development of a parametric model for the rotational compliance of a cracked right circular flexure hinge. A right circular flexure hinge has been widely used in compliant mechanisms. Particularly in compliant mechanisms, cracks more likely occur in the flexure hinge because it undergoes a periodic deformation. A parametric model has many good uses, as opposed to a numerical model, including fault diagnosis, facility for the real-time control and optimization of design of a compliant mechanism. The rotational compliance of cracked right circular flexure hinge is derived in this paper. This is achieved by the superposition of the rotational compliance of flexure hinge and the compliance change induced by the crack. Without of loss of generality of the result, this paper only considers one type of flexure hinge, namely right circular flexure hinge. The experiment is performed, and the results show that the parametric model is accurate enough for the intended application.