Design, modeling, fabrication and testing of a piezoelectric microvalve for high pressure, high frequency hydraulic applications

A piezoelectrically-driven hydraulic amplification microvalve for use in high specific power hydraulic pumping applications was designed, fabricated, and experimentally characterized. High frequency, high force actuation capabilities were enabled through the incorporation of one or more bulk piezoelectric material elements beneath a micromachined annular tethered-piston structure. An hydraulic amplification mechanism was employed to amplify the limited stroke of this piezoelectrically-driven piston structure to a significantly larger motion (40-50x) of a micromachined valve membrane with attached valve cap. This valve cap was actuated through its stroke to open and close against a fluid orifice. These design features enabled the valve device to simultaneously meet a set of high frequency (1-10kHz), high pressure(0.1-IMPa), and large stroke (15-40,um) requirements that had not previously been satisfied by other microvalves presented in the literature. This research was carried out through a series of modeling, design, fabrication, assembly, and experimental testing tasks. Linear and non-linear modeling tools characterizing the structural deformations of the active valve sub-systems were developed. These tools enabled accurate prediction of real-time stresses along the micromachined valve membrane structure during deflection into its non-linear large-deflection regime. A systematic design procedure was developed to generate an active valve geometry to satisfy membrane stress limitations and valve power consumption requirements set forth by external hydraulic system performance goals.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2002

Author dc:creator

• Roberts, David C. (David Christopher)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David L. Trumper.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8332

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/8332