Related papers: Experimental Characterization of the static behavi…

The aim of this paper is to deal with multi-physics simulation of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) based on an advanced numerical methodology. MEMS are very small devices in which electric as well as mechanical and fluid phenomena…

In this paper, static and dynamic behavior of an electro statically actuated torsional micro actuator is studied. The micro actuator is composed of a micro mirror and two torsional beams, which are excited with two electrodes. Unlike the…

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) methods utilizing resonant mechanical vibrations of cantilevers in contact with a sample surface have shown sensitivities as high as few picometers for detecting surface displacements. Such a high sensitivity…

We consider two cantilevered beams undergoing frictional impacts at the free end. The beams are designed to be of similar geometry so that they have distinct but close natural frequencies. Under harmonic base excitation near the primary…

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) normally have fixed or moving structures (plates or array of thin beams) with cross-sections of the order of microns and lengths of the order of tens or hundreds of microns. Electrostatic forces play…

We investigate the nonlinear dynamics of microcantilevers. We demonstrate mechanical stiffening of the frequency response at large amplitudes, originating from the geometric nonlinearity. At strong driving the cantilever amplitude is…

An electrostatic in-plane overlap varying energy harvester is modeled and simulated using a circuit simulator. Both linear and nonlinear models are investigated. The nonlinear model includes mechanical stoppers at the displacement extremes.…

Using numerical simulations, we characterized the behavior of an elastic membrane immersed in an active fluid. Our findings reveal a nontrivial folding and re-expansion of the membrane that is controlled by the interplay of its resistance…

A dielectric elastomer whose edges are held fixed will buckle, given sufficient applied voltage, resulting in a nontrivial out-of-plane deformation. We study this situation numerically using a nonlinear elastic model which decouples two of…

Electrostatic and Casimir interactions limit the range of positional stability of electrostatically-actuated or capacitively-coupled mechanical devices. We investigate this range experimentally for a generic system consisting of a…

Nonlinear dynamics of a two-side electro-statically actuated capacitive micro-beam is studied. The piezoelectric actuation leads to the generation of an axial force along the length of the micro-beam and this is used as a tuning tool to…

The extensive research and development of micromechanical resonators is trying to allow the use of these devices for highly sensitive applications. Microcantilevers are some of the simplest MEMS structure and had been proved to be a good…

Nonlinear elastic responses of short and stiff polyelectrolytes are investigated by dynamic simulations on a single molecule level. When a polyelectrolyte condensate undergoes a mechanical unfolding, two types of force-extension curves,…

The linear instability of a beam tensioned by its own weight is considered. It is shown that for long beams, in the sense of an adequate dimensionless parameter, the characteristics of the instability caused by a follower force do not…

This paper contains a thorough investigation of the performance of electrically activated layered soft dielectric composite actuators under plane deformation. Noting that the activation can be induced controlling either the voltage or the…

The effect of surface stress on the stiffness of cantilever beams remains an outstanding problem in the physical sciences. While numerous experimental studies report significant stiffness change due to surface stress, theoretical…

We introduce a three-dimensional model for polyelectrolyte hydrogel filaments operating in a fluid environment under an electric field. The formulation builds on a morphoelastic framework for inextensible and unshearable rods, such that the…

We have designed and tested experimentally a morphing structure consisting of a neutrally stable thin cylindrical shell driven by a multiparameter piezoelectric actuation. The shell is obtained by plastically deforming an initially flat…

In this article, a systematic and comprehensive approach based on finite element analysis and analytical modelling for studying static pull-in phenomena in hybrid levitation micro-actuators is presented. A finite element model of…

Properties of typical MEMS materials have been widely investigated. Mechanical properties of MEMS structures depend not only on the bulk material properties, but also structural factors. A measurement system has been made to measure…