Investigation on Actuation Performance of Continuous Fiber Reinforced Piezoelectric Composite Actuator

In this paper, a novel continuous fiber reinforced piezoelectric composite (CFRPC) actuator is proposed to improve the stability and reliability of piezoelectric actuators. A piezoelectric driving structure composed of a cantilever beam and the CFRPC actuator is utilized to research the actuation performance of the CFRPC actuator. The expression of the equivalent moment for the CFRPC actuator is obtained using the equivalent load method and electro-mechanical coupling theory. Based on Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, the analytical expression of the deflection for the cantilever beam is derived. The accuracy of the obtained analytical expressions is demonstrated by finite element simulation as well as published experimental results. The actuation performance of the CFRPC actuator is investigated through the analytical expressions of the equivalent moment and deflection. The results show that the key parameters such as driving voltage, fiber volume fraction, cantilever beam height, actuator height, actuator length and actuator position have great influence on the actuation performance of the CFRPC actuator. The CFRPC actuator has good mechanical and electrical properties, and has a wide application prospect in the field of structural shape control.