A smooth impact drive mechanism (SIDM) is one type of piezoelectric actuator that has been put into practical use. In previous SIDMs, soft-type multilayered piezoelectric elements with low mechanical quality factors were utilized, which meant it was difficult to generate high output power, and the multilayered structure was an obstacle to further miniaturization. We have proposed a resonant-typ...

In this paper, the thermal buckling analysis of a circular plate made of FGM materials with actuator/actuator piezoelectric layers based on neutral plane, classical plate theory and first order shear deformation plate theory is investigated. Reddy's model is assumed for material properties of FGM plate. Plate under the thermal loading, nonlinear temperature rise through the thickness and clampe...

Creating insect-scale flapping flight at the 0.1 gram size has presented significant engineering challenges. A particular focus has been on creating miniature machines which generate similar wing stroke kinematics as flies or bees. Key challenges have been thorax mechanics, thorax dynamics, and obtaining high powerto-weight ratio actuators. Careful attention to mechanical design of the thorax a...

Electrical energy can be harvested from the wind using flag-like membranes (termed piezoelements or bimorphs) composed of flexible piezoelectric materials. The flapping of the membrane caused by the wind induces bending stresses which generate a voltage across electrodes positioned on the surfaces of the material via the piezoelectric properties of the material. The best results to date using P...

A multilayer ceramic actuator composed of piezoelectrically active Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)0.2–Pb(Zr0.5Ti0.5)O0.8 (PZN–PZT) layers and electrically conducting PZN–PZT/Ag layers was fabricated by the co-extrusion process. For the piezoelectric layers, PZN–PZT, which is sinterable at a low temperature (9001C), was used. For the conducting layers, a PZN–PZT/Ag composite, made by mixing silver particles with...

This paper is concerned with active vibration reduction of a square isotropic plate, mounted rigidly along one edge to form a cantilever. Optimal placement of ten piezoelectric sensor/actuator pairs is investigated using a genetic algorithm to suppress the first six modes of vibration. A new objective function is developed based on modified Hinfinity to locate the sensor/actuator pairs. The pla...

The tracking control accuracy of the piezoelectric actuator (PEA) is limited due to its inherent hysteresis nonlinearity. A new piezoelectric-actuator model is synthesized based on two first-order transfer systems in parallel with two tuned parameters determined from one experiment. Two open-loop tracking controllers are implemented with the proposed model to compensate the hysteresis of linear...

A linear piezoelectric actuator based on the stick-slip principle is presented and tested in this paper. With the help of changeable vertical preload force flexure hinge, the designed linear actuator can achieve both large travel stick-slip motion and high-resolution stepping displacement. The developed actuator mainly consists of a bridge-type flexure hinge mechanism, a compound parallelogram ...

With widely application of nanomanipulation, the design requirements of nanomanipulation control system is higher and higher. To improve the control precision of nano-components, it is important to do research on closed-loop control method for nanomanipulation. The piezoelectric ceramic actuator has the inherent characteristic of hysteresis, creep and nonlinear. Attocube is adopted as piezoelec...

Piezoelectric energy harvesting using cantilever-type structures has been extensively investigated due to its potential application in providing power supplies for wireless sensor networks, but the low output power has been a bottleneck for its further commercialization. To improve the power conversion capability, a piezoelectric beam with different electrode coverage ratios is studied theoreti...