Modelización y simulación de dispositivos electromecánicos avanzados

Resumen

An actuator is a functional element that converts some form of input energy into mechanical energy in a controlled way. The input energy depends on the actuator type, and it can be a current, load, voltage, temperature or the pressure of a fluid. In the same way the output could be force, work, displacement or torque. Actuators could be divided into two big groups: conventional actuators (hydraulic, pneumatic and electromagnetic) and active material based actuators. The latter are called smart or active materials because they exhibit the ability of changing their physical properties in the presence of an external stimulus. This thesis deals with topics related to the optimization and new applications for electromechanical actuators based on new magnetic and active materials. The work for this thesis studied the following actuators: a generator/flow- meter device, a lineal electromechanical actuator, a magnetostrictive actuator and a shape memory alloy based actuator. In order to study the actuators to optimize them and to improve their output performance, simulation tools such as Finite Element Analysis and Modal Analysis have been used and different experimental measurements have been performed.