Finite element method analyses of ambient temperature effects on characteristics of piezoelectric motors

There have been numerous experimental reports about the environmental effects on characteristics of intelligent actuators, such as the piezoelectric motors. However, the influences of temperature coefficients of material properties, which are the fundamental reasons for the changes of motors’ output characteristics in different ambient temperature condition, are specially difficult to be acquired through experiments. Thus, the optimization for piezoelectric motors driven in extreme environments is scarce till now. This article is aimed to establish one calculating method to solve this problem. First, a theoretical model is developed for investigating the effects of ambient temperature on characteristics of piezoelectric motors by the finite element method. And then, the mechanical and electrical characteristics of a piezoelectric motor are measured to demonstrate the theoretical model. After that, the changes of critical parameters caused by the ambient temperature are discussed. Based on this, the final proportion of effects of materials’ temperature coefficients on changes of characteristics of piezoelectric motors is obtained. The results obtained by the theoretical model give useful guidelines for the optimization of piezoelectric motors operating in extreme environments.