The need for precision positioning applications has enormously influenced the research and development towards the growth of precision actuators. Over the years, piezoelectric actuators have significantly satisfied the requirement of precision positioning to a greater extent with the capability of broad working stroke, high-accuracy, and resolution (micro/nano range) coupled with the advantage of faster response, higher stiffness, and actuation force. The present review intends to bring out the latest advancement in the field of piezoelectric actuator technology. This review brings out the specifics associated with the development of materials/actuators, the working principles with different actuation modes, and classifications of the piezoelectric actuators and their applications. The present article throws light on the design, geometrical features, and the performance parameters of various piezoelectric actuators right from unimorph, bimorph, and multilayer to the large displacement range actuators such as amplified actuators, stepping actuators with relevant schematic representations and the quantitative data. A comparative study has been presented to evaluate the pros and cons of different piezoelectric actuators along with quantitative graphical comparisons. An attempt is also made to highlight the application domains, commercial and future prospects of technology development towards piezoelectric actuators for precision motion applications. The organization of the paper also assists in understanding the piezoelectric materials applicable to precision actuators. Furthermore, this paper is of great assistance for determining the appropriate design, application domains and future directions of piezoelectric actuator technology.
In this article, we focus on static finite element (FE) simulation of piezoelectric laminated composite plates and shells, considering the nonlinear constitutive behavior of piezoelectric materials under large applied electric fields. Under the assumptions of small strains and large electric fields, the second-order nonlinear constitutive equations are used in the variational principle approach, to develop a nonlinear FE model. Numerical simulations are performed to study the effect of material nonlinearity for piezoelectric bimorph and laminated composite plates as well as cylindrical shells. In comparison to the experimental investigations existing in the literature, the results predicted by the present model agree very well. The importance of the present nonlinear model is highlighted especially in large applied electric fields, and it is shown that the difference between the results simulated by linear and nonlinear constitutive FE models cannot be omitted.
This paper deals with static and dynamic analysis of thin-walled structures with integrated piezoelectric layers as sensors and actuators in the geometrically nonlinear range of deformations. A variational formulation is derived by using the Reissner–Mindlin first-order shear deformation (FOSD) hypothesis and full geometrically nonlinear strain-displacement relations accounting for finite rotations. The finite rotations are treated by Rodriguez parameterization. In order to enhance the accuracy of a four-node shell element, a combination of an assumed natural strain (ANS) method for the shear strains, an enhanced assumed strain (EAS) method for the membrane strains and an enhanced assumed gradient (EAG) method for the electric field are employed. The present shell element has five mechanical degrees of freedom (DOFs) and three electrical DOFs per node. The Newton–Raphson method for static analysis and the Newmark method for dynamic analysis are used to perform linear and nonlinear simulations. In comparison to the results obtained by simplified nonlinear models reported in the existing literature, the finite-element simulations performed in this paper show the importance of the present model, precisely for structures undergoing finite deformations and rotations.
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