Simulation of a gas-liquid phase-change micro-actuator

This paper presents a mathematical model and simulation of the gas-liquid phase-change micro-actuator. We have fabricated a gas-liquid phase-change micro-actuator that is 16 mm diameter and 10 mm thick, and that has a liquid pool with a volume of 79 ml. The operating fluid is R-113. By dividing the operating fluid to two thermal elements, we could make a simple mathematical model for the actuator. By the experiment and the simulation, the actuator was confirmed that it can reciprocate continuously in a 0.5-mm stroke by the averaged input power of 0.525 W.