Point load actuation on plate structures based on triangular piezoelectric patches

This paper investigates the design of a perfect point load actuator based on flat triangular piezoelectric patches. Applying a difference of electric potential between the electrodes of a triangular patch leads to point loads at the tips and distributed moments along the edges of the electrodes. The previously derived analytical expressions of these forces show that they depend on two factors: the width over height (b/l) ratio of the triangle, and the ratio of the in-plane piezoelectric properties ($e_{31}/e_{32}$) of the active layer of the piezoelectric patch. In this paper, it is shown that by a proper choice of b/l and of the piezoelectric properties, the moments can be cancelled, so that if one side of the triangle is clamped, a perfect point load actuation can be achieved. This requires $e_{31}/e_{32}$ to be negative, which imposes the use of interdigitated electrodes instead of continuous ones. The design of two transducers with interdigitated electrodes for perfect point load actuation on a clamped plate is verified with finite element calculations. The first design is based on a full piezoelectric ceramic patch and shows superior actuation performance than the second design based on a piezocomposite patch with a volume fraction of fibres of 86%. The results show that both designs lead to perfect point load actuation while the use of an isotropic PZT patch with continuous electrodes gives significantly different results.