Development of Inverse Magnetostrictive Actuator

Electromagnetic actuators have some problems such as heat generation and bulky size. To overcome such problems, this paper proposes an electromagnetic actuator using inverse magnetostrictive effect. The development of inverse magnetostrictive actuator (IMA) starts with the concept of magnetostrictive material (MM) as a flux source, not as a variable resistance. Piezoelectric (Piezo) and MM models are derived first to know the relationship between the input and output. This relationship is incorporated into the spring model to obtain the stress applied to MM, when a voltage is applied to Piezo. The performance of IMA is evaluated in terms of the displacement and force. The percentage error between the model and experimental data falls on 1% for the displacement, and on 10% for the force.