<title>Experimental study of THUNDER: a new generation of piezoelectric actuators</title>

Abstract

THUNDER is a new generation of piezoelectric actuator/sensors that was developed at NASA Langley Research Center in 1994. THUNDER exhibits large out-of-plane displacement and a very good load carrying capacity relative to other types of piezoelectric actuators. The key factor in superior performance of THUNDER is incorporation of a pre- stressing phase during manufacturing. THUNDER is being produced by commercial manufacturers that have licensed the technology from NASA. THUNDER is a new technology; consequently, there is limited experimental study on its performance. Recently, an extensive set of experiments was conducted at Jamesbury Corporation on THUNDER in order to evaluate its advantages and limitations in active control applications. This paper describes the results of many experiments that were conducted to study the time response, frequency response, hysteresis, creep, and response repeatability of THUNDER.