EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION OF FLEXTENSIONAL TRANSDUCERS DESIGNED BY USING TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION METHOD

摘要

A flextensional transducer consists of a piezoceramic connected to a flexible structure which amplifies and changes the direction of generated piezoceramic displacement. In a previous work~(1,2) these transducers were designed by using topology optimization method. In this work, some prototypes of these transducers were manufactured and experimental measurements were performed to characterize them. The prototypes were built by bonding a flexible structure manufactured by using a wire EDM machine to a piezoceramic with epoxy. As a result, the displacements obtained through laser interferometry at a given frequency and the electrical impedance curves are presented. The experimental results were compared with simulated results obtained by using a commercial finite element software (ANSYS), and the predicted amplification rate provided by these transducers were verified.