• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.94-100
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• 2009

This paper proposes a novel curved shape piezoelectric unimorph using a new fabrication method. Instead of using thermal coefficient mismatch, which has been used for conventional processes for curved shape unimorphs, we used pre-stressed substrates and the room temperature adhesion process. A difference of the mechanical strains between the substrate and the piezoelectric layer makes the final manufactured unimorph get curved. Several performance tests of the proposed unimorph actuators were accomplished and the test results showed the proposed unimorph actuator got comparable actuation capability compared with conventional curved shape actuators.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.127-131
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• 2008

This paper deals with the performance evaluation of piezoelectric unimorph actuator. In the unimorph design, the thickness ratio of substrate to piezoelectric material and the elastic modulus ratio of substrate to piezoelectric material are important parameters. There exists only one structural configuration that satisfies the optimal condition among them, and actuators using that configuration exhibit better actuating displacements. Another design parameter is the piezoelectric coefficient which can be improved due to the induced tensile stress and voltages. The application of the tensile stress to the piezoelectric material makes it get higher piezoelectric coefficient and the total displacement performance of the unimorph actuator is improved. Finally, the piezoelectric actuator system with spring elements is fabricated and it shows higher actuating displacement capability.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.250-259
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• 2010

The ability for energy harvesting via the piezoelectric effect was studied for a unimorph element such as piezo buzzer. A simple equivalent circuit was proposed to predict the energy generated based on the internal stress. Unimorphs with a metal-cavity were used as a driving device of the generation panel. Both the AC open voltage and DC output voltage as a function of pressure period and number of element were measured. For the unimorph generation circuit, DC output voltage varies with pressure period, reaching a maximum value at $470{\mu}F$. The maximum output voltage a according to load resistance was measured at $1M{\Omega}$. Data analysis of the DC output voltage and time constant indicated that number of piezoelectric element of optimum was 60~80. It was found that piezoelectric unimorph has the possibility to be used as the driving element of the electric generation.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.121-123
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• 2007

Energy harvesting from the vibration through the piezoelectric effect has been studied for powering the wireless sensor node. As piezoelectric unimorph cantilever structure can transfer low vibration to large displacement, this structure was commonly deployed to harvest electric energy from vibrations. Piezoelectric unimorph structure was composed of small stiff piezoelectric ceramic on the large flexible substrate. As there is the large Young's modulus difference between the flexible substrate and stiff piezoelectric ceramic, flexible substrate could not homogeneously transfer the vibration to stiff piezoelectric ceramic. As a result, most piezoelectric ceramics had been broken at the certain point. We measured and analyzed the stress distribution on the piezoelectric ceramic on the cantilever.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.13-15
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• 2010

On this paper, piezoelectric transducer was studied through direct piezoelectric effect. Circular unimorph type piezoelectric transducer is fabricated by attaching circular type PZT ceramic to circular plate of brass. The fabricated transducer was simulated and analyzed by using FEM program, ANSYS. Output characteristics were measured by applying diverse frequencies, including resonance frequency, of vibrator to transducer, and then the results were compared with ANSYS results. In addition, each characteristic was measured at two constraint conditions to obtain higher efficiency.

• Composites Research
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2017

In this study, LIPCA-S2 actuator with a piezoelectric single crystal layer and a carbon/epoxy layer was designed and evaluated to increase actuation performance of piezo-composite unimorph actuator. A curvature change model generated by the induced strain of a piezoelectric layer was used to predict the tip displacement of the piezo-composite unimorph cantilever. However, we found that there was big difference between the predicted and the measured tip displacement of LIPCA-S2 cantilever actuator when we used the previous linear prediction model. A new prediction model considering the change of piezoelectric strain coefficient and elastic modulus for the compression stress variation of the PMN-29PT single crystal layer was used and it was found that the difference between the predicted and the measured tip displacement reduced considerably.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.501-507
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• 2017

A unimorph piezoelectric cantilever generator with an interdigitated electrode (IDE) was developed for vibration energy harvester applications driven in the longitudinal mode. Hard lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic with a high $Q_m$ of 1,280 was used as the piezoelectric active material. Ten PZT sheets produced by tape casting were laminated and co-fired with an Ag/Pd IDE at $1,050^{\circ}C$ for 2 h. The approximately $280{\mu}m$-thick co-fired PZT laminate with the IDE was attached to a stainless steel substrate with an adhesive epoxy for the fabrication of an IDE unimorph cantilever. Its energy harvesting characteristics were evaluated: an output power of $1.1{\mu}W$ at 120 Hz across the resistive load of $700k{\Omega}$ was obtained, corresponding to a normalized power factor of $4.1{\mu}W/(G^2{\cdot}cm^3)$.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.30 no.4 s.247
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• pp.409-419
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• 2006

The actuating performance of plate-type unimorph piezoelectric composite actuators having various stacking sequences was evaluated by three dimensional finite element analysis on the basis of thermal analogy model. Thermal residual stress distribution at each layer in an asymmetrically laminated plate with PZT ceramic layer and thermally induced dome height were predicted using classical laminated plate theory. Thermal analogy model was applied to a bimorph cantilever beam and LIPCA-C2 actuator in order to confirm its validity. Finite element analysis considering thermal residual deformation showed that the bending behavior of piezoelectric composite actuator subjected to electric loads was significantly different according to the stacking sequence, thickness of constituent PZT ceramic and boundary conditions. In particular, the increase of thickness of PZT ceramic led to the increase of the bending stiffness of piezoelectric composite actuator but it did not always lead to the decrease of actuation distance according to the stacking sequences of piezoelectric composite actuator. Therefore, it is noted that the actuating performance of unimorph piezoelectric composite actuator is rather affected by bending stiffness than actuation distance.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.22-26
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• 2011

On this paper, a circular unimorph-type piezoelectric transducer was proposed and studied. The transducer was fabricated by attaching a circular-shaped PZT ceramic to a circular plate of brass and output characteristics of the fabricated transducer were then analyzed and measured by changing driving points where the mechanical vibrations were applied. Two conditions depending on the location of vibration were respectively defined as a center forced model and an edge forced model. The resonance frequency and output voltage of the models were simulated by using ANSYS, a FEM(finite element method) program. Based on the results of the analyses, the vibration experiment was conducted and the output characteristics then measured through measurement equipment. As a result, the maximum output characteristics of two models were respectively generated at each resonance frequency and the resonance frequency of the center forced model was lower than the edge forced model.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.776-780
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• 2016

Recently, energy harvesting technology is increasing due to the fossil fuel shortages. To compensate problem of low generating power than other energy harvesters, many researchers have studied about piezoelectric harvester for obtaining high output. In this paper, four kinds of unimorph based piezoelectric harvesters were proposed and its generating characteristics were studied. Each of the piezoelectric harvesters has three, four, and six unimorph arms, respectively, and the arms are symmetrically arranged from one central point. The centrosymmetric structure of the harvesters guarantees more stable and multiplied generation than a cantilever-type harvester since the arms of the harvester resonate at same frequency. Resonance frequency, output voltage, displacement, and stress characteristics of the generator were analyzed by using a FEM (finite element method) program. Harvesters were fabricated on the basis of analysis results. Experimental results were compared with simulated results.