• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.71-77
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• 2012

Numerical simulations are carried out for flow over a circular cylinder controlled by the momentum forcing which is generated by a pair of plasma actuators symmetrically mounted on the cylinder surface. A popular and empirical plasma model is used for the spatial distribution of momentum forcing. In this study, we consider two different types of actuation, i.e., steady and unsteady (or pulsed) actuation. In the unsteady actuation, the actuation is turned on and off periodically, its frequency being a control parameter. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of actuator location and actuation frequency on the flow structures and the forces on the cylinder. Results show that the cylinder wake can be effectively controlled by proper actuator location. For example, when the actuators are located at $120^{\circ}$ from the stagnation point, vortex shedding is completely suppressed with the boundary layer almost fully attached to the surface, resulting in drag reduction and lift elimination.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.85-92
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• 2012

Flows over a square cylinder with and without plasma actuation are numerically investigated to see whether plasma actuation can effectively modify vortex shedding from the cylinder and reduce the drag and lift fluctuations. In this study, a plasma synthetic jet actuator is mounted on the rear side of cylinder as a means of direct-wake control. The effect of plasma actuation is considered by adding a momentum forcing term in the Navier-Stokes equations. Results show that the reduction of mean drag and lift fluctuations is obtained for both steady and unsteady actuation. However, the steady actuation is better than the unsteady one in terms of mean drag as well as drag fluctuations. With the strong steady actuation considered, the interaction of two separating shear layers from rear corners is effectively weakened due to the interference of synthetic jets. It results in a merging of synthetic-jet and shear-layer vortices and the increase of vortex shedding frequency. On the other hand, the unsteady actuation generates pulsating synthetic jets in the near wake, but it does not change the vortex shedding frequency for the actuation frequencies considered in this study.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.547-565
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• 2014

This paper investigates the design of a perfect point load actuator based on flat triangular piezoelectric patches. Applying a difference of electric potential between the electrodes of a triangular patch leads to point loads at the tips and distributed moments along the edges of the electrodes. The previously derived analytical expressions of these forces show that they depend on two factors: the width over height (b/l) ratio of the triangle, and the ratio of the in-plane piezoelectric properties ($e_{31}/e_{32}$) of the active layer of the piezoelectric patch. In this paper, it is shown that by a proper choice of b/l and of the piezoelectric properties, the moments can be cancelled, so that if one side of the triangle is clamped, a perfect point load actuation can be achieved. This requires $e_{31}/e_{32}$ to be negative, which imposes the use of interdigitated electrodes instead of continuous ones. The design of two transducers with interdigitated electrodes for perfect point load actuation on a clamped plate is verified with finite element calculations. The first design is based on a full piezoelectric ceramic patch and shows superior actuation performance than the second design based on a piezocomposite patch with a volume fraction of fibres of 86%. The results show that both designs lead to perfect point load actuation while the use of an isotropic PZT patch with continuous electrodes gives significantly different results.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.297-311
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• 2018

Plate and shell structure is widely applied in engineering, i.e. building roofs, aircraft wings, ship platforms, and satellite solar arrays. Its vibration problem has become increasingly prominent due to the tendency of lightening, upsizing and flexibility. As a new smart material with great actuating force and toughness, macro-fiber composite (MFC) is composed of piezoelectric fiber and epoxy resin basal body, which can be directly pasted onto the surface of plate and shell and is suitable for vibration control. This paper deduces the actuation equation of MFC coupled plate in different boundary conditions, an equivalent finite element modeling method is proposed which uses MFC actuating force as the applied excitation, and on this basis the active control simulation and experiment of MFC over plate and shell structure vibration are accomplished. The results indicate that MFC is able to implement effective control over plate and shell structure vibration in multi-band range. The comparison between experiment and simulation proves that the actuation equation deduced herein, effective and practicable, can be applied into the simulation calculation of MFC vibration control over plate and shell structure.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.221-227
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• 2019

This paper studies an effect of vibration on twisted string actuation inside conduit at high curvature angles. In our previous work. we have mentioned that twisted string actuators can be used to transmit power even at significant curvature angles of the conduit. However, several undesirable effects, namely pull-back, hysteresis, and chattering, were present during actuation due to friction between strings and the internal sheath of the conduit. This paper reports the results of experimental study on effects of vibration on twisted string actuation inside curved conduits. We have demonstrated that applying vibration generated near natural frequency of the system during the stages of twisting and untwisting cycles helped reduce pull-back and hysteresis and increase string contraction. In case when sheath was deflected by $180^{\circ}$ under a constant load of 3 kg, we were able to achieve over 40% decrease in pull-back and 30% decrease in hysteresis, compared with no vibration case.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.189-206
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• 2012

This paper focuses on the actuation system combined with a piezoelectric transducer and an electric circuit, which leads to a new insight; the electric actuation system is equivalent to mechanical variable-stiffness actuation systems. By controlling the switch in the circuit, the electric status of the piezoelectric transducer is changed, and consequently a variable-stiffness mechanism is achieved on the electric actuator. This proposed actuator features a shift in the equilibrium point of force, while conventional electrically-induced variable-stiffness actuators feature the variation of the stiffness value. We intensively focus on the equilibrium shift in the actuation system, which has been neglected. The stiffness of the variable-stiffness actuator is periodically modulated by controlling the switch, to suppress the vibration of the system in an open-loop way. It is proved that this electric actuator is equivalent to its mechanical counterpart, and that the electrical version has some practical advantages over the mechanical one. Furthermore, another kind of electrically-induced variable-stiffness actuator, using an energy-recycling mechanism is also discussed from the viewpoint of open-loop vibration control. Extensive numerical simulations provide comprehensive assessment on both electrically-induced variable-stiffness actuators employed for open-loop vibration control.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.135-145
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• 2006

This paper presents the theory, design, fabrication and characterization of the novel low actuation voltage capacitive shunt RF-MEMS switch using a corrugated membrane with HRS MEMS packaging. Analytical analyses and experimental results have been carried out to derive algebraic expressions for the mechanical actuation mechanics of corrugated membrane for a low residual stress. It is shown that the residual stress of both types of corrugated and flat membranes can be modeled with the help of a mechanics theory. The residual stress in corrugated membranes is calculated using a geometrical model and is confirmed by finite element method(FEM) analysis and experimental results. The corrugated electrostatic actuated bridge is suspended over a concave structure of CPW, with sputtered nickel(Ni) as the structural material for the bridge and gold for CPW line, fabricated on high-resistivity silicon(HRS) substrate. The corrugated switch on concave structure requires lower actuation voltage than the flat switch on planar structure in various thickness bridges. The residual stress is very low by corrugating both ends of the bridge on concave structure. The residual stress of the bridge material and structure is critical to lower the actuation voltage. The Self-alignment HRS MEMS package of the RF-MEMS switch with a $15{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ lightly-doped Si chip carrier also shows no parasitic leakage resonances and is verified as an effective packaging solution for the low cost and high performance coplanar MMICs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.23 no.2_2
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• pp.313-321
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• 2020

In this paper, two types of linear actuation methods for the previously proposed adaptive gripper are presented, which includes actual parallelogram inside a five-bar mechanism and has the advantages of smaller actuation torque and larger stroke over the commercial adaptive gripper by RobotiQ. The forward/inverse kinematics and statics analyses for two types of linear actuations are derived. From the inverse kinematics and statics analyses, linear actuation type I is selected and the gripper prototype is designed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.615-618
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• 2005

All over the world, many kinds of micro-actuators were already developed for various applications. The actuators are using various principles such as electromagnetic, piezoelectric and thermopneumatic etc. The most of the micro-actuators have been made using 2D based MEMS technology. In these actuators, it is difficult to drive 3-dimensional motion. This characteristic gives the limit of actuator application. However, micro-stereolithography technology has made it possible to fabricate freeform three-dimensional microstructures. In this technology, 2-dimensional micro-shape layer is cumulated on the other layers. This layer-by-layer process is the main principle to fabricate 3-dimensioal micro-structures. In this research, a micro-bellows actuator that is vertically moving was developed using the micro-stereolithography technology. When pressure was applied into the bellows, a non-contact actuating motion is generated. For actuation experiment, syringe pump and laser interferometer were used for applying pressure and measuring the displacement. Several hundreds micro-scale actuation was observed. And, to demonstrate the feasibility of proposed actuation principle, in this research, a micro-gripper was developed using half-bellows structure.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.765-784
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• 2014

In comparison with conventional shape memory actuated structures, antagonistic shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators permits a fully reversible two-way response and higher response frequency. However, excessive internal stress could adversely reduce the stroke of the actuators under repeated use. The two-way shape memory effect might further decrease the range of the recovered strain under actuation of an antagonistic SMA actuator unless additional components (e.g., spring and stopper) are added to regain the overall actuation capability. In this paper, the performance of all four possible types of SMA actuation schemes is investigated in detail with emphasis on five key properties: recovered strain, cyclic degradation, response frequency, self-sensing control accuracy, and controllable maximum output. The testing parameters are chosen based on the maximization of recovered strain. Three types of these actuators are antagonistic SMA actuators, which drive with two active SMA wires in two directions. The antagonistic SMA actuator with an additional pair of springs exhibits wider displacement range, more stable performance under reuse, and faster response, although accurate control cannot be maintained under force interference. With two additional stoppers to prevent the over stretch of the spring, the results showed that the proposed structure could achieve significant improvement on all five properties. It can be concluded that, the last type actuator scheme with additional spring and stopper provide much better applicability than the other three in most conditions. The results of the performance analysis of all four SMA actuators could provide a solid basis for the practical design of SMA actuators.