Force-deflection behavior of piezoelectric C-block actuator arrays

C-blocks are unique piezoelectric building blocks which can be combined in series or parallel to generate tailorable performance and exploit the advantages of bender and stack architectures. This paper presents a complete theoretical model that predicts the force-deflection behavior for any generic C-block actuator array configuration. An experimental investigation with five case studies is described that validates the model over a broad range of actuator prototypes and performance. This study characterizes the sensitivity of this class of actuator array with respect to material, geometric, and configuration parameters. The paper concludes with a comparison of the generic C-block architecture to the current state of art on a basis of absolute measures such as maximum force, deflection, and work and normalized measures such as effective stress, strain, and work per actuator volume. From this, it is concluded that C-blocks are a highly efficient, mid-range actuation technology.