Flexible Arm Optimal Design of Pipe Robot Expanding Brake Structure

Structure parameters of Flexible arm in expanding brake of pipe robot are important, which are used to effect the expanding force. Pseudo-rigid-body model is often adopted for size optimization. The relationship between stress distortion and structure parameters are analyzed by virtual principle. The optimization objective is to make sure that piston has the least propulsive force without reducing expanding force. The mechanical model is established, which is used to calculate structural parameters of flexible arm in expanding brake for pipe robot. And results are illustrated by some experiments. A simple optimal design method is proposed for nonlinear elastic deflections, which has great value for centralizer and bow spring centralizer of pipe robot in Petroleum and petrochemical industry. Pipe is one of the most important ways for mass and energy transfer, which is widely used in nuclear power, gas, and petroleum systems. There are also many problems of pipe detection and repairment. Some research centers pay high attention for developing pipe robot. Commonly, there are three parts of pipe robot including expanding brake, expansion joints, and centralizer, illustrated in Figure 1.