This paper reviews turbulent boundary-layer control strategies for skin-friction reduction of aerodynamic bodies. The focus is placed on the drag-reduction mechanisms by two flow control techniques-spanwise oscillation and spanwise travelling wave, which were demonstrated to give up to 45 per cent skin-friction reductions. We show that these techniques can be implemented by dielectric-barrier d...

In magnetic disk drive actuators, the application of piezo electric material can be used to re ne and accomplish track following in (extremely) high track density magnetic data storage. In this paper the results on the modeling and control of a piezobased milli-actuator are presented. The modeling is done on the basis of a least squares curve tting of an estimated frequency response and taking ...

Dielectric elastomers represent today excellent materials for the realisation of electric field driven polymer actuators capable of high performances. A new kind of actuator made of dielectric elastomers, able to show in principle electrically activated linear contractions, is here theoretically described. The device consists of an elastomeric hollow cylinder, having two helical electrodes inte...

A method is presented to indirectly measure and shorten carbon nantoubes grown from the tips of atomic force microscope (AFM) probes. The measurement component exploits the nanotubes ability to elastically buckle and requires only those signals and actuators available on a standard AFM. The shortening operation is facilitated by electric arcing using a conducting niobium substrate. The shorteni...

The development of tools for a multi-microrobot manipulating system prototype to handle cells and biomolecules is proposed. The system will be based on a cluster (5 to 10) of small (cm3) mobile autonomous robots, comprising several essential subsystems such as a global positioning system to provide accurate position information of each microrobot and advanced manipulating tools for biological a...

Mini and micro robots, which can swim in an underwater environment, have drawn widespread research interests because of their potential applicability to the medical or biological fields, including delivery and transportation of bio-materials and drugs, bio-sensing, and bio-surgery. This paper reviews the recent ideas and developments of these types of self-propelling devices, ranging from the m...

This paper treats the optimization of production batches by computer simulation in a manufacturing company producing electric and pneumatic actuators. In its introduction part the article deals about a wider context of batch production optimization. Subsequently, the paper presents a procedure for creation of a simulation model in SIMPLE ++ software environment. Based on simulation of a manufac...

This paper deals with the vibration analysis of an asymmetric composite beam composed of glass a piezoelectric material. The Bernoulli’s beam theory is adopted for mechanical deformations, and the electric potential field of the piezoelectric material is assumed such that the divergence-free requirement of the electrical displacements is satisfied. The accuracy of the analytic model is assessed...

The dynamic response of a fluidic actuator is investigated on the basis numerical simulations. With this membrane excited to oscillate by means an electrorheological valve. For purpose solid and fluid domains are coupled. Furthermore, constitutive equation coupled electric field. discussed example variable stiffness membrane. Actuators type offer potential delay transition boundary layer.

Piezoelectric actuators are known to exhibit hysteresis when driven at relatively large voltages. In most situations this phenomenon is detrimental. Electric charge is known to naturally reduce the effects of hysteresis. The interaction of charge driven piezoceramics with flexible structures is analyzed and reveals that the dynamics of the system are different from the voltage driven case. A pr...