Design and Testing of Piezoelectric Circular Arc Driver

A piezoelectric circular arc driver designed for a piezoelectric circular arc motor is presented in this study. The design of the piezoelectric circular arc driver and its control electronics are proposed. The system governing equations, vibration behavior, and wave propagation are investigated. Then, a finite element model is developed to analyze the vibration characteristics of the arc driver. After that, a physical model of the piezoelectric circular arc driver is built and tested to demonstrate that the design of the circular arc motor is feasible. Fabrication of the piezoelectric circular arc driver and its implementation are discussed, followed by testing of the conceptual model. The demonstrations show that the circular arc motor performs as expected. Experimental data of the physical circular arc motor are compared with the finite element results. The operating frequency of the conceptual driver is comparable with the finite element result.