Uncertainty of shape memory alloy micro-actuator using generalized polynomial chaos method

Abstract

In last decades, there has been an increasing interest in the use of micromachining technology. Intelligent materials such as shape memory alloy are considered for the design of micro-actuators. It is worth mentioning that the numerical study of such actuator without taking into account the uncertainties of different parameters has shown a great attention. Nevertheless, material parameters can suffer from a lack of accuracy due to the experiment measurement of these parameters. As a result, this paper proposes a methodology for considering uncertainty in a shape memory alloy materiel for a micro-pump actuator. The proposed approach is used in order to determine the response of this micro device with uncertainty related to material parameters. The simulation results are obtained by the generalized Polynomial Chaos (gPC) method for the response of such actuator under uncertainty. The proposed technique is an efficient probabilistic tool for uncertainty propagation. It is well shown that the gPC technique is an attractive alternative to the parametric studies. For more accuracy, the generalized Polynomial Chaos results are compared with Monte Carlo simulation.