NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Experimental Characterization of Piezoelectric Radial Field Diaphragms for Fluidic ControlNASA has recently developed a new piezoelectric actuator, the Radial Field Diaphragm or RFD. This actuator uses a radially-directed electric field to generate concentric out-of-plane (Z-axis) motion that allows this packaged device to be used as a pump or valve diaphragm. In order to efficiently use this new active device, experimental determination of pressure, flow rate, mechanical work, power consumption and overall efficiency needs to be determined by actually building a pump. However, without an optimized pump design, it is difficult to assess the quality of the data, as these results are inherent to the actual pump. Hence, separate experiments must be conducted in order to generate independent results to help guide the design criteria and pump quality. This paper focuses on the experiments used to generate the RFD's operational parameters and then compares these results to the experimentally determined results of several types of ball pumps. Also discussed are how errors are inherently introduced into the experiments, the pump design, experimental hardware and their effects on the overall system efficiency.
Document ID
20040082247
Acquisition Source
Langley Research Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Bryant, R. G.
(NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Kavli, S. E.
(North Dakota Univ. Grand Forks, ND, United States)
Thomas, R. A., Jr.
(Raytheon Technical Services Co. Hampton, VA, United States)
Darji, K. J.
(Virginia Commonwealth Univ. Richmond, VA, United States)
Mossi, K. M.
(Virginia Commonwealth Univ. Richmond, VA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2004
Subject Category
Fluid Mechanics And Thermodynamics
Meeting Information
Meeting: Actuator 2004: 9th International Conference on New Actuators
Location: Breman
Country: Germany
Start Date: June 14, 2004
End Date: June 16, 2004
Funding Number(s)
OTHER: 23-762-93-AB
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
Document Inquiry

Available Downloads

There are no available downloads for this record.
No Preview Available