Abstract
As the field of smart materials and structures emerges, there is an increasing need for high- force, high-displacement actuators. An actuator architecture that shows potential in meeting this need is the C-block. C-blocks are curved piezoelectric laminated beams, poled in the radial direction, that flex when voltage is applied. One of the main advantages of C-blocks is they can be combined into distributed arrays to generate more force and/or deflection. The original C-block design was a polymeric bimorph and required the piezoelectric layers to experience both tension and compression. Unfortunately, ceramic versions of the actuator would fail as a result of the tensile stress. Therefore, the C-block design has been modified to an asymmetrically loaded unimorph. This paper introduces a ceramic C-block actuator design along with a simple model for deflection-voltage performance. To verify the model, piezoelectric polymeric and ceramic C-block prototypes were fabricated and deflection-voltage experiments were performed. These experiments demonstrate that the model predicts well the performance of asymmetric C-blocks. The model may be used to design a variety of C-block actuators, potentially including a high-force, high displacement actuator for smart structures applications.
