A phenomenological approach to temperature dependent piezo stack actuator modeling

Piezo stack actuators heat up due to internal losses if high electric fields at moderate frequencies are applied which firstly results in a reversible change of the behavior of the actuators and finally in the destruction of the actuator. This paper presents a phenomenological approach on how to model the temperature dependent behavior and the self-heating effect. The actuator hysteresis and the actuator losses are computed by means of a modified Preisach operator. To simulate the actuator temperature a finite-element-method (FEM) model is utilized. The paper contains a detailed explanation of the actuator modeling approach and presents the achievable model quality using the example of a commercially available piezo stack actuator. The model is capable to predict the unipolar hysteresis loops as well as the actuator losses and the self-heating effect for arbitrary input signals with reasonable accuracy. A critical review on the model and an outlook toward future researches concludes the paper.