Dynamic modeling and experimental verification of a piezoelectric part feeder in a structure with parallel bimorph beams

The study is aimed to perform dynamic modeling of a part feeder powered by piezoelectric actuation. This part feeder consists mainly of a horizontal platform vibrated by a pair of parallel piezoelectric bimorph beams. Owing to intermittent impacts with the platform, the transported part on the platform is able to march forward from one end to another. Dynamic modeling of the feeder is accomplished by essentially using the Rayleigh–Ritz decomposition method. The process of modeling first incorporates material properties and constitutive equations of the piezoelectric materials, and then captures the complex dynamics of the parallel-beam piezo-feeder by three low-order assumed-modes in the transverse direction of the vibrating beams. Applying Lagrange’s equations on the kinetic and strain energies formulated in terms of generalized coordinates associated with the first three modes, the system dynamics is then represented by three coupled discrete equations of motion. Based on these equations, motions of the platform can be obtained. With platform motion in hand, the intermittent impacts between the parts and the platform are modeled, rendering the marching speed of the part. Numerical simulations are conducted along with the experiments. The closeness found between the theoretical predicted transporting speed of the part and the experimental counterparts verify the effectiveness of the models established.