Analytical and Experimental Characterization of Macro-Fiber Composite Actuated Thin Clamped-Free Unimorph Benders

Abstract

A type of piezoceramic composite actuator known as Macro-Fiber Composite (MFC) is used commonly for actuation in smart-material structures. In this paper, a linear distributed parameter electromechanical model is proposed to predict the structural response to MFC actuated clamped-free thin cantilevered beams. The structural frequency response behavior between the tip velocity of the cantilever beam and the actuation voltage of the piezoelectric material is investigated experimentally for cantilevered unimorph MFC actuated benders with aluminum, brass, and steel substrate materials with different thicknesses. Good correlation is observed between the model and the experimental observations.