Session: 02-06-01: Structural Dynamics and Control of Morphing Wing and Smart Structures

Paper Number: 110943

110943 - Piezoelectric Actuation Technology Inventions in the Last Two Decades 

Piezoelectric transducers (sensors and actuators) played serial important roles on new technology development waves over a century. The significant contributions include i) piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer for under water detections to significantly increase survive capabilities of warships since the world I; ii) advanced controls for nuclear weapons since 1940s; iii) precision controls for microelectronic processing equipment to make the semiconductor technology revolutionary since 1960s; iv) piezoelectric transducers make medical instrumentation revolutions on ultrasonics, CTs, etc. in last several decades; v) piezoelectric sensors, such as stress, strain, force, pressure sensors are broadly used in various industries for a century; vi) piezoelectric sensors and actuators makes modern automobile vehicles more safe, reliable, and energy efficiency; vi) piezoelectric sensors and actuators make aircraft more robotic; vii) piezoelectric sensors and actuators are broadly used for space explorations and military portable intelligent devices.

In the 21 century, piezoelectric transducers continually play important roles on new technology developments. There are many new requirements for revelational piezoelectric transducers. In order to address those new requirements, my collaborators and I invented several new piezoelectric transduction devices, which increased one order or more energy densities. Those inventions include the polymer ceramic hybrid actuation systems [1-4], hybrid piezoelectric energy harvesting/actuation transduction systems [5-8], hybrid piezoelectric synthetic actuators [9-11], multistage force/displacement amplification piezoelectric harvester/transducers [12], and high-power-density piezoelectric energy harvesting transduction system [13, 14]. 

In this review, the background and motivations of those inventions will be briefly introduced, and the work principles of the highlighted inventions will be explained, and the impact on increase orders of magnitude energy densities of those piezoelectric actuator devices will be summarized. The advantages performance and potential applications of those invented devices will be briefly discussed.

References:

[1]    Ji Su, and Tian-Bing Xu, “Hybrid Electromechanical Actuator and Actuation System,” U.S. Patent 7,394,181 B2, July 2008.

[2]    T.-B. Xu, and J. Su, JAP  97(3), 034908 (2005).

[3]    T-B. Xu, and J. Su, Proceeding of the ASME, Paper number IMECE2004-62491, 2004.

[4]    J. Su, T. Xu, S Zhang, T. Short, and Q.M. Zhang, Appl. Phys. Lett. 85 (6), 1045 (2004)

[5]    Tian-Bing Xu, Xiaoning Jiang, Ji Su, Paul W. Rehrig, and Wesley S. Hackenberger, “Hybrid Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Transducer System,” U.S. Patent 7,446,459 B2, November 2008.

[6]    Tian-Bing Xu, Xiaoning Jiang, and Ji Su, “Piezoelectric Multilayer-Stacked Hybrid Actuation/Transduction Systems,” U.S. patent 8,680,749, March 2014.

[7]    T.-B. Xu, X. Jiang, and J. Su, Applied Physics Letters 98 (24), 243503, 2011

[8]    Laura Tolliver, Tian-Bing Xu, Xiaoning Jiang, Smart Materials and Structures, 22, 035015 (2013).

[9]    Tian-Bing Xu, Xiaoning Jiang, and Ji Su, “Advanced High Performance Vertical Hybrid Synthetic Jet Actuator,” U.S. patent 8,052,069, November 2011.

[10] Tian-Bing Xu, Xiaoning Jiang, and Ji Su, “Advanced High Performance Horizontal Piezoelectric Hybrid Synthetic Jet Actuator,” U.S. patent 8,235,309 B2, August 2012.

[11] Tian-Bing Xu, Ji Su, and Xiaoning Jiang, “Advanced Modified High Performance Synthetic Jet Actuator with Optimized Curvature Shape Chamber,” U.S. Patent 8,662,412, March 2014.

[12] Tian-Bing Xu, Emilie J. Siochi, Lei Zuo, Xiaoning Jiang, and Jin Ho Kang, “Multistage Force Amplification of Piezoelectric Stacks” U.S.  Patent 9,048,759 B2, June 2015.

[13] Jian-Qiao Sun, Cheng Chen, Amir Sharafi, Tian-Bing Xu, and Atousa Yazdani, “High-Power-Density Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting System,” U.S. Full Patent application U.C. Case No.: UC-2018-887-2-PCT / SLW No.: 3891.012WO1, filed on July 31, 2019.  World Intellectual Property Organization, WO2020028592, Publication Number WO/2020/028592, 2020.

[14] Cheng Chen, Tian-Bing Xu, Atousa Yazdani, Jian-Qiao Sun, “A high density piezoelectric energy harvesting device from highway traffic--System design and road test,” Applied Energy 299 (2021) 117331

Presenting Author: Tian Bing Xu Old Dominion University

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Tian-Bing Xu is an Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the at the Old Dominion University. Dr. Xu received his M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1999 and Ph.D. in Material Sciences and Engineering in 2002 from the Pennsylvania State University, respectfully. Before he joined ODU in July 2018, Dr. Xu had been working at NASA Langley Research Center for 16.5 years. He was one of the most innovative researchers at NASA and received 44 awards. Dr. Xu is the author of over 140 technical papers and listed as one of the top 2% worldwide scientists. Dr. Xu hold 10 U.S. patents and 15 pending patents. Dr. Xu was selected associate fellow of AIAA in 2019.

Authors: