Modeling of cantilever type piezoelectric polymer actuator

Among the various types of actuators available, piezoelectric materials are very promising on account of its miniaturization which results in making the products more compact and light. These materials are capable of producing large forces and precise displacement at higher efficiency and exhibit a linear property. This work mainly emphasizes on the behavior of the cantilever beam when piezoelectric actuation is carried out using PVDF layers. Piezoelectric actuators directly use the electric field induced strain which is derived from piezoelectric coefficients d₃₁, d₃₃. A design concept for bi-layered piezoelectric actuation using the d31 mode using PVDF as the material is emphasized here. The maximum tip deflection of the cantilever beam is studied for driving voltages of 90-140 V in the steps of 10V for three different thicknesses where the stacking of 2 layers is carried out in 4 actuation configurations namely PESP, PERP, SESP, SERP. The results obtained for bi-layer actuator is compared with single layer and the equivalent single layer thick actuator. All this is achieved by creating a finite element model for the cantilever beam in a FEM tool. The modelling is done in a real time scenario where the gluing layer, packaging layers, copper electrodes, Silver Ink are also considered to do a realistic analysis.