Micro electrostrictive actuator with metal compliant electrodes for flow control applications

Abstract

A micro synthetic jet actuator driven by electrostrictive diaphragm actuator was developed for flow control applications. Metal concentric ring electrodes were employed in order to obtain large out-of-plane deformation. It is found that the deformation strongly depends on the gap/width ratio of the ring electrode. The maximum deformation for 2 mm-diameter actuators is as large as 30 /spl mu/m, which is 3 times larger than that of the plain metal electrode actuator. A prototype synthetic jet actuator was fabricated by using the present electrostrictive actuator, and the jet flow issued from a 0.5 mm orifice was visualized.