A Proportional Piezoelectric Electro-Fluidic Pneumatic Value Design

Abstract

The development of a proportional electro-fluidic pneumatic valve is presented. The first stage of the valve consists of a piezoelectric bender element of bimorph construction centered between two nozzles. The bimorph is deformed by an electrical input signal. This, in turn, causes a change in pressure at the output of the nozzles, which will then be amplified to a usable level using cascaded laminar proportional amplifiers. A mathematical model of the valve’s behavior is discussed and verified with experimental measurements.