Design, experiment, and verification of a heating and insulation structure for the piezoelectric stack

In the low-temperature environment, temperature reduction affects the properties and actuation performance of the piezoelectric stack. To solve this problem, a practical and effective heating and insulation structure, based on the working characteristics of the piezoelectric stack, is proposed in this article. Thermal conductivity models of the piezoelectric stack under two heating modes—whole heating and local heating—are developed and validated by finite element simulation analysis. The heating and insulation structure has been built according to the theoretical model, and the experimental test is conducted to measure the temperature and property variation of the piezoelectric stack, as well as its actuation performance with ambient temperature drop. The experimental results show that the theoretical and simulation results are consistent with the experimental results, as the maximum temperature difference between them is 4.3°C, which indicates the correctness and accuracy of the theoretical and finite element models. Besides, the properties and the actuation performance are almost unchanged within the range from 10°C to −70°C, which verifies the effectiveness and feasibility of the heating and insulation structure. Consequently, this structure can be redesigned according to the principles proposed in this article, and widely used in protecting piezoelectric stacks of different sizes and low-temperature environments; the application range of the piezoelectric stack can also be extended to lower temperatures.