Design and performance analysis of a rotary traveling wave ultrasonic motor with double vibrators

• A double-vibrator rotary traveling wave ultrasonic motor is designed.
• The innovative design brings in a new contact mechanism.
• Design methods of vibrators matching the new contact mechanism are described.
• Performance analysis using motion synthesis and Hertz contact theory is studied.

This paper presents the development of a rotary traveling wave ultrasonic motor, in which a vibrating stator and vibrating rotor are combined in one motor. The stator and rotor are designed as similar structures an elastic body and a piezoelectric ceramic ring. In exciting of the piezoelectric ceramics, the elastic body of the stator and rotor will generate respective traveling waves, which force each other forward in the contact zone. Based on the elliptical rule of particle motion and matching principle of vibration, the design rules of two vibrators are determined. The finite element method is used to design the sizes of vibrators to ensure that they operate in resonance, and the simulation is verified by measuring the vibration with an impedance analyzer. It is found out that to maintain an appropriate contact between the stator and rotor, two vibrators need to be designed with close resonance frequencies, different vibration amplitudes, and be driven by an identical driving frequency. To analyze this innovative contact mechanism, particle velocity synthesis theory and contact force analysis using Hertz contact model are carried out. Finally, a prototype is fabricated and tested to verify the theoretical results. The test results show that the output performance of the motor driven by the two vibrators is significantly improved compared to the motor driven by a sole stator or rotor, which confirms the validity of the double-vibrator motor concept.