Linear and nonlinear analysis of the thermal effects of beam piezoelectric bending actuator on adaptive optics

The beam piezoelectric bending actuator, of a simple structure and at a low cost, can be a good match for the large adaptive optics telescopes, for it has a large stroke and a high resonance frequency. In this article, the thermal effects of a beam piezoelectric bending actuator are analyzed in the aspects of the statics, dynamics, and nonlinear dynamics. The results of the linear statics and dynamics have shown that the thermal effects will produce the zero offsets to the static strokes of the beam piezoelectric bending actuator and have little influence on the resonant frequency. Besides, finite element analysis methods are applied to validate the analytic methods. The conclusions have shown that the analytic results and the finite element analysis results are reasonably consistent with each other. Furthermore, the nonlinear behaviors of the beam piezoelectric bending actuator in dynamics are studied, and through the changeable curves of the frequency, it can be observed that the results of the strokes imposed on the actuator have exhibited multiple values and jumps near the resonance.