<title>Computational modeling and parametric study of a rotary actuator driven by piezoelectric composites</title>

Abstract

An innovative actuation principle was introduced in a previous study to drive a rotary actuator by piezoelectric composite laminate. The driving element is a three layer laminated beam with piezoceramics sandwiched between two antisymmetric composite laminae. By taking advantage of the structural coupling, a rotary actuator similar to ultrasonic motors can be implemented. A prototype of the mentioned actuator has been fabricated. The objective of this study is to model this device by finite element method. A commercial finite element code, ANSYS, was employed to simulate the rotary actuator. The piezoelectric laminate and the rotor were modeled by solid brick elements and special constraint element was used to account for the contact between two separate bodies. Static and transient dynamic analyses were conducted to simulate the deformation and the angular motion of the rotary actuator, respectively. Parametric study was performed by modal and harmonic analyses to investigate the dynamic response of the driving laminate. The results of this study confirmed the proposed actuation principle and the developed computational model may be used for the optimization of future design.