Limit Operation Regimes of Actuators Working on Principle of Thermoelasticity

摘要

Actuators working on the principle of thermoelasticity exhibit specific properties (particularly very high forces at small shifts) and may be used, for example, as prospective fixing elements in many industrial applications. But huge mechanical strains and stresses in their active structural parts may lead to irreversible damage or even destruction of the whole device. The paper deals with the limit cases of operation of a typical actuator of this kind that are influenced by geometry of the device, materials used and parameters of field current. Investigated is mainly mechanical stiffness of the device as a function of the length of the dilatation element. The methodology is illustrated on an example.