Optimal design of electrode polarization in piezoelectric unimorph beams to induce traveling waves

In this paper a milli-sized traveling wave actuator is designed by optimizing the polarization direction. Two different sets of electrodes are needed to generate the traveling wave. The topology optimization method is used to get the optimal sets of electrodes that minimize the difference between a pure traveling wave and the deflection generated. Classical issues in topology optimization problem such as mesh-dependence or intermediate densities are overcome by using filtering and projection techniques. Examples with different boundary conditions are presented in order to validate the model. (c) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

A milli-sized traveling wave actuator is designed in this paper by optimizing the polarization direction. Two different sets of electrodes are required to generate the traveling wave. The topology optimization method is utilized to obtain the optimal sets of electrodes that minimize the difference between a pure traveling wave and the deflection generated. Examples with different boundary conditions are presented to validate the model, overcoming classical issues in topology optimization.