Date of Award
January 2014
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Mechanical Engineering
First Advisor
Jason V Clark
Second Advisor
Dimitrios Peroulis
Committee Member 1
Jeffrey F Rhoads
Committee Member 2
Alina Alexeenko
Abstract
This dissertation introduces a novel, nestable piezoelectric actuator, called the s-drive. In the s-drive actuator, the piezoelectric material is sandwiched between two conductors, and the electrodes are configured such that an application of a voltage causes an extension on two beams and compression on the other two beams to produce a large lateral deflection in the form of an `s' shape. The s-drive gets its name from the characteristic `s' shape that appears upon actuation. The designs of one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) arrays of axial-mode and shear-mode s-drives, for magnifying displacement and shear, are also presented in this work. Experimental results from the fabricated s-drive and its 1D nested arrays are presented for validation of the finite element analysis simulations and the developed analytical model of the s-drive and its nested arrays.
Recommended Citation
Chigullapalli, Aarti, "Modeling and Validation of S-Drive: A Nestable Piezoelectric Actuator" (2014). Open Access Dissertations. 1501.
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/1501