Numerical Analysis on Two Kinds of Cymbal Membranes for Piezoelectric Micro-Flow Actuator

The behaviors of two kinds of cymbal piezoelectric-metal composite membrane for piezoelectric synthetic jet actuator (PSJA) are investigated to improve the driving capability of PSJA. The FEM models of piezoelectric-metal composite membranes are established and solved using ANSYS software. Two dimensionless geometry characteristic parameters of membrane, δ ₁ and δ ₂ , are defined and used to analyze the influences of geometry on the driving capability of membrane. Cymbal and plane membrane specimens are manufactured and tested to verify the results of simulation. The results of research show that there is an optimal combination between δ ₁ and δ ₂ that improve effectively the deformation and driving capability of PSJA membrane, especially the half cymbal membranes can provide the maximum deformation and driving capability under the same input and boundary condition. δ ₁ = 0.5, δ ₂ = 1.2 is a good combination for half cymbal membrane in the proposed research.