Modeling and Analysis of the Piezoelectric Stick-Slip Actuator: A Finite Element Approach

Piezoelectric stick-slip stepping actuators have emerged as a promising candidate, offering merits of high speed, compact design, and controllability. Despite advancements in this category, there is a necessity for a comprehensive analysis method to systematically investigate and predict the complex interactions of key input parameters such as friction at contact, inertia, driving signal, and mechanical design simultaneously. Hence, this work presents dynamic analysis using a finite element approach to reveal the complete phenomenon of the stick-slip motion. The parallel configuration of the linear piezoelectric stick-slip actuator is selected to demonstrate the effect of control parameters on its stepping displacement. An actuator prototype is fabricated, and experiments are conducted to test the efficacy of the numerical analysis. This method is envisioned to serve as a tool to bridge the design and operational aspects of the stick-slip actuator. Therefore, this work establishes the foundation for subsequent design and optimization studies, aiming to advance the development of high-performance piezoelectric actuators.