Performance Evaluation of a Bidirectional Piezoelectric Hybrid Actuator

Abstract

Piezoelectric-based hydraulic actuator is a hybrid device consisting of a hydraulic pump driven by piezoelectric stacks that is coupled to a conventional hydraulic cylinder via a set of fast-acting valves. Nowadays, such hybrid actuators are being researched and developed actively in many developed countries by requirement of high performance and compact flight system. In this research, a piezoelectric hybrid actuator has been designed and tested. To achieve bi-directional capabilities in the actuator, solenoid valves were used to control the direction of output fluid. The experimental testing of the actuator in uni-directional and bi-directional modes was performed to examine performance issues related to the solenoid valves. The results showed that the bi-directional performance was slightly lower than uni-directional performance due to air bubble developed in the valve system. A new design to solve the vacuum problem has been proposed to improve the performance of the hybrid actuator.