Development of piezoelectric fans for flapping wing application

A piezoelectric fan (piezofan) which couples a piezoelectric unimorph to an attached flexible blade is able to produce a large deflection especially at resonance. The fundamental resonant frequencies (fr) of the piezofan structures have been calculated by an analytical method and finite element modelling, and these were compared with experimental measurements. Good agreements have been obtained between them. The free tip deflection at quasi-static operation or/and the vibration amplitude at dynamic operation (A) of the piezofans have been experimentally measured. We introduce fr × A as an optimization criterion for piezofans. Optimization according to this criterion has been carried out for some piezofan configurations, such as the length and the location of the piezo patch, as well as the thickness ratio between the elastic and piezoelectric layers among a few available variations. Results show this optimization approach to be promising when compared to previously defined piezofan performance parameters such as the energy transmission coefficient and electromechanical coupling coefficient.