Distributed multi-flexoelectric actuation and control of plates

• Main Authors: Mu, Fan, Zhongmin, Xiao, Hornsen, Tzou
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Engineering::Aeronautical engineering; Electric Field; Electrode
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/151839
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

To alleviate the flexoelectric stress concentration, an elastic rectangular plate actuated by multiple flexoelectric actuators is evaluated in this study. A line electrode placed on top of a flexoelectric patch and coupled with a bottom surface electrode layer can generate an inhomogeneous electric field when a control voltage is applied, and consequently an internal actuation stress is generated. The objective is to explore the influence of the multiple actuator placements and optimal actuation locations. A multi-actuator mathematical model with any arbitrary actuators is derived. Case studies proved that the influence of actuator locations on the modal force is modal dependent. The optimal actuation location of mode (1,1) indicates all three actuators gathering in the middle of the plate. For mode (2,1), there were two sets of optimal locations located at the peaks of its mode shape, respectively. The multi-actuator method has significant advantages on actuation capability and can alleviate the stress concentrations caused by the single-actuator method.