Snap-through buckling behavior of piezoelectric bimorph beams: II. Experimental verification

摘要

This part II of the present work is focused on the experimental verification of the snap-through buckling models presented in part I. The construction of the bimorph piezoelectric actuators that are used for the experimental verification is presented in detail. The materials, curing procedure and electrical connectivity of the actuators are shown. The experimental set-up and subsequent results for the non-linear behavior of the bimorph piezoelectric actuators are depicted, providing the necessary arguments for the validity of the models presented in part I. Focus is given to the verification of the modified model with the use of the elastic boundary. Different compression values were provided in order to investigate the limits of linear actuation and the onset of snap-through buckling transition that eventually provides increased actuation output in terms of out-of-plane displacements.