Piezoceramic multilayer actuators for fuel injection systems in automotive area

Cofired multilayer piezoceramic actuators as extremely fast valve driving elements will lead to a significant progress in the field of fuel injection systems. A careful adaptation of the component performance to the system demands, an extraordinary high reliability, and competitive low production costs are prerequisites for this large-scale industrial application. With proper material selection as basis, conventional multilayer technology has to be substantially extended in order to achieve large stack volumes, to avoid degradation effects during cofiring and nevertheless to meet the target costs. Under large-signal driving conditions, the static and dynamic behavior of the component is essentially influenced by driving pulse shape, clamping force, and stiffness of the load. Linear FE methods are employed to calculate the performance criteria of different actuator designs. Moreover, a FE-implementation using a micromechanical domain switching model was developed in order to describe the strongly nonlinear material behavior. Together with a quantitative estimation of crack initiation and propagation by means of fracture mechanics, these methods can give valuable hits for controlling the effects of fatigue and deterioration which may limit the operating life time. In order to optimize the interaction of the electrical and mechanical parts in the injection system, dynamic models of piezoelectric components must be provided. A nonlinear model of the stack actuator has been developed for the analysis software MATLAB/SIMULINK. Special attention has been paid to the hysteresis properties.