Design of Piezoelectric Actuators Using the Topology Optimization Based on Density Method

Flextensional Piezoelectric Actuator consists of a flexible structure actuated by piezoelectric ceramics. These actuators are applied to microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), nanotechnology equipment, microsurgery equipment, etc. However, due to the fact these actuators essentially consist of a compliant mechanism their design is complex. The compliant structure behaves as a mechanical transform by amplifying and changing the direction of small output displacements generated by piezoceramics. The flexible structure is designed by distributing flexibility and stiffness in the design domain, which can be achieved by using topology optimization. Therefore, the objective of this work is to implement topology optimization method (TOPOPT) to design flextensional piezoelectric actuators. Essentially, the TOPOPT consists of finding the optimal material distribution in a design domain. The implemented topology optimization method is based on the SIMP material model. To illustrate the method, examples presented herein are limited to two-dimensional models once in most part of applications of these actuators they are planar devices. These actuators are manufactured on a 150 μm thickness copper plate through lithography method based on chemical corrosion, utilizing infrastructure of LNLS (Sincroton Light National Laboratory).