Abstract
In this research performed on a pneumatic actuator, the air flow entering and exiting the cylinder, and the motion and deformation characteristics of the piston during operation of the actuator, were predicted. This was carried out by utilizing an FSI(Fluid-Structural Interaction) analysis technique that incorporates principles in computational fluid dynamics and structural stress analysis, and potential performance degradation factors were examined. Analysis results indicated that performance improvements could be made through design modifications. These include adding an inlet and outlet on the upper and lower sections of the cylinder in the conventional model, and increasing the number of sites for piston guide bars from three to four.