Modeling and Optimization Issues Concerning a Circular Piezoelectric Actuator Design

An electromechanical model for a circular piezoelectric actuator is developed and analyzed. A critical challenge in certain applications employing piezoceramic actuators is to maximize the displacement provided by the actuator while minimizing it power consumption. This problem is addressed here by developing an electromechanical model which can be used to optimize the volume displacement to admittance ratio for various circular actuator designs. The model includes multiple layers with independent radii which can be varied to optimize performance. The piezoceramic, bonding, plating, and mounting materials can be varied to accommodate various design criteria. Similarly, the model incorporates various options for boundary conditions. A significant advantage of the model lies in the property that for a variety of material configurations, analytic solutions can be obtained. Numerical examples demonstrating the properties of the model will be presented. 1 Introduction This paper focuses on..