Effective range of integrated fluidic actuators in structural elements

Abstract

. High demand for living and working space as well as the corresponding infrastructure, caused by a growing population and increasing prosperity worldwide, leads to increased consumption of mineral resources. This is accompanied by high usage of grey energy and a high output of greenhouse gas emissions. Adaptive structures represent a promising approach for mass and resource savings. Through the interaction of actuators, sensors and control units, the structure can adapt to the external loads to reduce stresses and deformations. As a result, the building material required can be reduced. For actuators integrated into slabs, new challenges arise due to the multi-axial load transfer. In particular, the aim is to achieve the largest possible effective range of the applied moment to reduce the number of actuators required. One approach is to optimize the geometry of the force-introducing surfaces inside the structural element. This paper presents a study about the correlations of the geometric parameters using numerical simulations. This enables the pre-dimensioning of the actuator and is thus a first step in its design.