Synthetic jet actuators are promising Active Flow Control (AFC) devices which could lead to saving millions of dollars in fuel consumption each year. The Bimorph piezoelectric actuators are an attractive alternative to other type of actuators as active diaphragms and are the focus of this work. Among the properties of a Bimorph actuator, a number of geometrical and physical external factors may...

A selective dry process is used to fabricate epitaxial diaphragms by etching anisotropic cavities through a GaAs substrate to an AIGaAs stop-etch layer. Active devices are built directly on the layers comprising the diaphragm. The etching process follows the device fabrication sequence facilitating integration of these structures with pre-existing electronic circuitry. Potentiai applications in...

Speaker cones and other driver diaphragms are usually too fragile to be good sites for touch interaction. This can be solved by employing new, lightweight piezoresistive e-textiles with flat, rectangular, stiff surfaces used in full-range drivers from HiWave. Good low-frequency performance of piezoresistive fabric has an advantage over piezoelectric sensing for this situation. Applications of t...

In vitro studies of the diaphragm from emphysematous animals have, in some instances, shown an alteration in its sarcomere length-tension relationship and a decreased maximal specific tension. To our knowledge, it has never been determined whether such functional changes may be indicative of ultrastructural adaptations, e.g., changes in filament lengths and thus cross-bridge number. To address ...