Exciting electrode optimization of a piezoceramic plate type ultrasonic motor by combining artificial immune algorithm and finite element analysis

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose an optimization method by combining artificial immune algorithm and finite element analysis to find the optimal exciting electrode of a piezoceramic plate type ultrasonic motor vibrator.

Design/methodology/approach

The artificial immune algorithm is selected as optimizer for its merit of fast convergence to global optimal solution. The finite element analysis is used to calculate the motion trajectory of contact point. The objective function is the work that the vibrator does to rotor. The design variables are the boundaries of exciting electrode on piezoceramic plate vibrator surface.

Findings

The calculated results and the experimental results show that using this method, both the position and the size of optimal exciting electrode of this ultrasonic motor can be quickly and accurately determined.

Originality/value

In order to successfully design an ultrasonic motor, both the position and the size of the exciting electrode must be investigated, so as to change more electric energy into mechanical energy. In this paper, an optimization method by combining artificial immune algorithm and finite element analysis is proposed for the exciting location optimization of a piezoceramic plate type ultrasonic motor to obtain large power output.

Citation

Li, C., Yang, M., Pang, Y. and Li, S. (2013), "Exciting electrode optimization of a piezoceramic plate type ultrasonic motor by combining artificial immune algorithm and finite element analysis", Engineering Computations, Vol. 30 No. 5, pp. 751-768. https://doi.org/10.1108/EC-08-2013-0086