Civil and military structures are susceptible and vulnerable to damage due to the environmental and operational conditions. Therefore, the implementation of technology to provide robust solutions in damage identification (by using signals acquired directly from the structure) is a requirement to reduce operational and maintenance costs. In this sense, the use of sensors permanently attached to ...

In this paper, a bio-inspired bending actuator was designed and fabricated using piezoelectric patches and cantilever-shaped beam for controlling nose shape. The aim of this study is to investigate the use of the bending actuator. PZT and single crystal PMN-PT actuators were used to generate translational strain and shear stress. The piezoelectric patches were attached on the clamped cantilever...

Many applications of ultrasound for sensing, actuation and imaging require miniaturized and low power transducers and transducer arrays integrated with electronic systems. Piezoelectric micromachined ultrasound transducers (PMUTs), diaphragm-like thin film flexural transducers typically formed on silicon substrates, are a potential solution for integrated transducer arrays. This paper presents ...

An experimental investigation of vibration testing and active control of a space rigidizable inflatable composite boom containing embedded piezoelectric composite actuators was conducted. Inflatable deployable space structures offer reduced mass, higher packaging efficiency, lower life cycle cost, simpler design with fewer parts, and higher deployment reliability for many large deployable space...

This work describes a novel architecture to realize high-performance gallium nitride (GaN) bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonators. The method is based on the growth of a thick GaN layer on a metal electrode grid. The fabrication process starts with the growth of a thin GaN buffer layer on a Si (111) substrate. The GaN buffer layer is patterned and trenches are made and refilled with sputtered tung...

This paper describes a new class of flight control actuators using Post-Buckled Precompressed (PBP) piezoelectric elements. These actuators are designed to produce significantly higher deflection and force levels than conventional piezoelectric actuator elements. Classical laminate plate theory (CLPT) models are shown to work very well in capturing the behavior of the free, unloaded elements. A...

In this paper, we present the design, analysis and fabrication of MEMS based silicon micro-needles for insertion of fluid into the dermis and subcutaneous fat layer of human skin. Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) are uncovered to an assortment of liquid environments in applications such as chemical and biological sensors and microfluidic devices. In this paper, the design and fabrication ...

Recent technological developments have lead to significant increase in the generated heat by electronic and optical components. The removal of high heat fluxes can be successfully treated by several methods, e.g. impinging jets. Further improvement is offered by incorporating arrays of jets or causing jets to pulsate. The research reported herein introduces a new method which is based on actuat...