Home → Resources → Technical Papers → Nonlinear Dynamic System Theory → A multibody-based dynamic simulation method for electrostatic actuators

A multibody-based dynamic simulation method for electrostatic actuators

Sangkyu Lee, Jinam Kim, Wonkyu Moon, Jinhwan Choi, Ilhan Park, Daesung Bae, Nonlinear Dynamics, October 2008, Volume 54, Issue 1, pp 53-68.

Abstract

A numerical simulation method is developed to analyze the dynamic responses of electrostatic actuators, which are electromechanically-coupled systems. The developed method can be used to determine the dynamic responses of cantilever-type switches, which are an example of typical MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical System) devices driven by an electrostatic force. We propose the approach that adopts a point charge to deal with electric field effects between electrodes. This approach may be considered as a lumped parameter model for the electrostatic interactions. An advantage of this model may be the easy incorporation of the electrostatic effects between electrodes into a multibody dynamics analysis algorithm. The resulting equations contain the variables for position, velocity, and electric charge to describe the motion of the masses and the charges on the electrodes in a system. By solving these equations simultaneously, the dynamic response of an electrostatically-driven system can be correctly simulated. In order to realize this approach, we implement the procedures into RecurDyn, the multibody dynamics software developed by the authors. The developed numerical simulation tool was evaluated by applying it to cantilever-type electrostatic switches in many different driving conditions. The results suggest that the developed tool may be useful for predicting behaviors of electrostatic actuators in testing as well as in design.

How Multibody Dynamics Simulation Technology is Used

This paper proposes a method to simulate the dynamic behaviors of structures driven by electrostatic forces. This approach provides dynamic simulation results that describe the effects of large deformations of a structure and the electromechanical coupling inside a system. RecurDyn’s FFlex module allows finite element bodies to be analyzed during multibody dynamics simulations.