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Czél, László (author)The thesis aimed to characterize the effects of manufacturing-induced defects, particularly gaps in variable stiffness laminates. The primary focus centered on designing a specimen capable of accurately characterizing gap effects. A refined, element-level specimen design featuring a controlled gauge zone was developed, based on pre-defined...master thesis 2024
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Amoozandeh, A. (author), Herder, J.L. (author), Radaelli, G. (author)Compliant mechanisms have the potential to be utilized in numerous applications where the use of conventional mechanisms is unfeasible. These mechanisms have inherent stiffness in their range of motion as they gain their mobility from elastic deformations of elements. In most systems, however, complete control over the elasticity is desired....journal article 2024
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LEE, Tzu (author)This study proposes a novel design of monolithic compliant variable torsional stiffness (VTS) mechanism whose stiffness can be tuned continuously. This mechanism is then used to create a compliant variable stiffness (VS) ball joint. This compliant VS ball joint can be beneficial in various applications such as exoskeletons, prostheses, and bio...master thesis 2023
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Amoozandeh, A. (author)Industrial passive exoskeletons have been developed for years as a tool to reduce the physical workload of their users. They accomplish this by compensating for the user’s body weight and decreasing fatigue caused by repetitive loads. Despite their advantages, current exoskeletons have drawbacks that make them less convenient for users and thus...doctoral thesis 2023
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Moens, Tieme (author)Flying drones have been a well-established field of engineering for many years now. With the wave of bio-inspired design came the idea of flapping wing micro air vehicles (FWMAVs). These drones use flapping wings instead of fixed or rotary wings to generate their lift, giving them the potential for agile movement and application in confined...master thesis 2023
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van der Lans, Daan (author), Amoozandeh, A. (author), Radaelli, G. (author)This paper presents a novel shape morphing concept, which exploits neutral stability to achieve reversible shape morphing. The concept is based on actively changing the material stiffness on a local level in order to perturb the neutral stability and thus induce the shell to deform. This concept is realized by embedding Ni-Ti wires in a...journal article 2023
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Hijne, Max (author)The development of novel materials has been of great interest to the aerospace industry in the pursuit of efficiency and cost reduction. Fibre-steered variable stiffness laminates have promising characteristics due to the ability to better tailor designs for expected loading, as the fibre orientation can be varied within a layer. This thesis was...master thesis 2022
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van Campen, J.M.J.F. (author)Significant improvements in the mechanical performance of a laminated composite structure can be achieved by spatial variation of the stiffness properties within the laminate. Such a variable stiffness (VS) laminate, typically is created by steering the fibers within the laminae, resulting in an in-plane variation of stacking sequence and thus...conference paper 2022
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Wang, Z. (author), Almeida, José Humberto S. (author), Ashok, Aravind (author), Wang, Zhonglai (author), Castro, Saullo G.P. (author)Variable-angle filament-wound (VAFW) cylinders are herein optimized for minimum mass under manufacturing constraints, and for various design loads. A design parameterization based on a second-order polynomial variation of the tow winding angle along the axial direction of the cylinders is utilized to explore the nonlinear steering-thickness...journal article 2022
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Wang, Z. (author), Peeters, D.M.J. (author), De Breuker, R. (author)This work presents a new aeroelastic optimisation framework for the preliminary design of variable stiffness composite wing structures. The framework is constructed by sequentially and iteratively solving two sub-problems: aeroelastic tailoring and lay-up retrieval, using gradient-based algorithms with full-analytical sensitivities provided....journal article 2022
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Amoozandeh, A. (author), Radaelli, G. (author), van de Sande, W.W.P.J. (author), van Ostayen, R.A.J. (author), Herder, J.L. (author)Compliant mechanisms (CM) with adaptive stiffness have been widely used in robotics and machine design applications. This paper proposes adapting the endpoint stiffness of a spatially curved compliant beam using a movable torsional stiffener and a new graphical characterization method for the resulting anisotropic stiffness of the endpoint...journal article 2022
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Ashok, Aravind (author)The advancement in the steering capabilities of fibre placement machines has improved the tailoring potential and therefore the design possibilities for composite structures. However, the larger design freedom leads to complex and non-convex design spaces. Finding the optimum solution thus becomes costly and challenging, specifically considering...master thesis 2021
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Pasvanti, Nikoleta (author)The demand for efficient lightweight structures grows rapidly in the aerospace sector. Topology optimization, introduced in the late 80s, is a method capable of producing such structures and has been mainly studied for isotropic materials. On the other hand, the performance of composite structures, which are already widely employed in the...master thesis 2021
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Stella, Francesco (author)Many interesting designs of soft robots with variablestiffness capabilities have been presented in the literature. However, little attention has been given on the control of their embedded physical intelligence. In this work, we present an algorithm that exploits the variablejoint stiffness capabilities and the redundancy of a soft manipulator...master thesis 2021
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Staats, Laurens (author)Lateral torsional buckling (LTB) of I-beams is an established buckling phenomenon in civil and structural engineering known for causing structural failures. However when a buckling instability is present the structure contains a form of negative stiffness. Due to the observed tendency of I-beams subject to LTB to twist about their longitudinal...master thesis 2021
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Roepman, Thore (author)Straight fiber variable stiffness laminates use multiple overlapping patches to tailor the fiber orientations in particular regions of the laminate. A novel, automated framework for the design of manufacturable laminate has been developed using different stages. In the first and second stage an optimal stiffness distribution is determined using...master thesis 2021
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Roozendaal, Tjark (author)This report concerned the development of a soft robotic module for a seat pan, its optimization and application. The soft robotic module has an LED and photosensors for determining the distance of indentation and the passive force created by compressing the foam spring inside. An air pressure sensor is used to determine the active force created...master thesis 2021
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Verheijen, Daan (author)When inserting a flexible endoscope into a human colon during colonoscopy, limitations in the endoscope design can cause medical implications such as excessive colon stretching and buckling of the endoscope shaft. This thesis proposes a novel propulsion mechanism design for flexible endoscopes which changes the method of insertion as a way to...master thesis 2021
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Vertonghen, L. (author), Castro, Saullo G.P. (author)Previous research has hinted on further improvements of the buckling behaviour of variable-stiffness laminates by incorporating overlaps, resulting in a variable thickness profile that is non-linearly coupled to the steering angles. The present study compares two modelling strategies to consider the variable thickness distribution: 1) as...journal article 2021
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Ummels, R. (author), Castro, Saullo G.P. (author)Recent research on variable stiffness laminates have shown both numerically and experimentally that further improvement on the buckling performance is possible by incorporating overlaps that result in variable thickness profiles. We present the concept of overlap-stiffened designs that take advantage of the non-linear coupling between the tow...journal article 2021