• Composites Research
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.47-51
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• 2014

The purpose of the present study is to develop lightweight and simple smart actuators in order to replace conventional hydraulic/pneumatic actuators, and to apply the developed actuators to the actuation systems of a small unmanned air vehicle. This research describes the procedures of design, manufacturing of the piezo-composite actuator, and the performance evaluation. From the test results of the developed devices, we found the possibility of piezo-composite actuator could be used as a control surface of a small UAV system. We have designed and manufactured two kinds of piezo-composite actuators, unimorph actuator and bimorph actuator. The manufactured actuators were evaluated through the performance testes. It was found that the bimorph type actuator showed more linear angle change for the same excitation voltage variation than unimorph type. It is expected that piezo-composite actuator has a possibility to be used not only as a control surface of small unmanned flying vehicle but also as a control surface actuator of a guided missile fin through the miniaturization of power supply and control system.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.18-23
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• 2004

In this paper, material non-linear behavior of PZT wafer(3203HD, CTS) under high electric field and stress is experimentally investigated and the non-linearity of the PZT wafer is numerically simulated. Empirical functions that can represent the non-linear behavior of the PZT wafer have been extracted based on the measured piezo-strain under stress. The functions are implemented in an incremental finite element formulation for material non-linear analysis. New definition of the piezoelectric constant and the incremental strain are incorporated into the finite element formulation for a better reproduction of the non-linear behavior. With the new definition of the in incremental piero-strain the measured non-linear behavior of the PZT wafer has been accurately reproduced even for high electric field. For validation of the measured non-linear characteristics and the proposed approach, a PZT bimorph beam actuator has been numerically and experimentally tested. The predicted actuation displacement, based on the material nonlinear finite element analysis, showed a good agreement with the measured one.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.927-931
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• 2005

Carbon nanotube actuator, working under physical conditions (in aqueous solution) and converting electrical energy into mechanical energy directly, can be a good substitute for artificial muscle. The carbon nanotube actuator simulated in this paper is an isotropic cantilever type with an adhesive tape which is sandwiched between two single-walled carbon nanotubes. For predicting the static and dynamic characteristic parameters, the analytical model for a 3 layer bimorph carbon nanotube actuator is developed by using Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. The governing equation and boundary conditions are derived from energy principles. The induced displacements of the theoretical model are presented in order to investigate the performance of the carbon nanotube actuator with different control voltages. The developed model presents invaluable means for designing and predicting the performance of carbon nanotube actuator that can be used in artificial muscle applications.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.1012-1016
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• 2004

In the present paper, equivalent beam and equivalent bimorph beam models for IPMC(ionic Polymer-Metal Composite) actuators are described. Physical properties of an IPMC, such as Young's modulus and electro-mechanical coupling coefficient. are determined from the rule of mixture, bimorph beam equations, and measured force-displacement data of a cantilevered IPMC actuator. By using a beam equation with estimated physical properties, actuation displacements of a cantilevered IPMC actuator was calculated and a good agreement between the computed tip displacements and the measured data was observed. Finite element analysis(FEA) combined with the estimated physical properties was used to reproduce the force-displacement relationship of an IPMC actuator. Results from the FEA agreed well with the measure data. The proposed models might be used for modeling of IPMC actuators with complicated shapes and boundary conditions.