Analysis on ambient temperature effects on piezoelectric actuated tracked mobile system

Abstract

In order to study the thermal adaptability of piezoelectric actuated tracked mobile system, a theoretical model is developed for investigating the effect of ambient temperature on the characteristics of piezoelectric actuated tracked mobile system based on finite element method and Coulomb's friction law. In the analysis, the temperature-dependent mechanical properties of materials, thermal stress and their combination are considered to investigate the effect of ambient temperature on the vibration amplitude and resonant frequency of the piezoelectric transducer by the finite element method; Then on this basis a contact model is built to calculate the relationship of traction force versus speed, in which the effect of ambient temperature on contact interface was included. And then, a temperature experimental system is established to measure the characteristics of piezoelectric actuated tracked mobile system to demonstrate the theoretical model. The experimental results basically agree with the theoretical model. At last, the proportion of effects of material's temperature coefficients on changes of characteristics of piezoelectric actuated tracked mobile system is obtained. The results obtained by the theoretical model give useful guidelines for the optimization of piezoelectric actuated tracked mobile system operating in extreme temperature environment.