Modeling of Piezoelectric Bimorph Nano Actuators With Surface Effects

Abstract

Twodimensional (2D) equations of piezoelectric bimorph nanoactuators are presented which take account of the surface effect. The surface effect of the bimorph structure is treated as a surface layer with zero thickness. The influence on the plate's overall properties resulted from the surface elasticity and piezoelectricity is modeled by a spring force exerting on the boundary of the bulk core. Using the derived 2D equations, the antiparallel piezoelectric bimorph nanoactuators of both cantilever and simply supported plate type are investigated theoretically. Numerical results show that the effective properties and the deflections of the antiparallel bimorph nanoactuators are sizedependent. The deflection at the resonant frequency achieves nearly 50 times as that under the static driving voltage.