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.