<title>Validation of high displacement piezoelectric actuator finite element models</title>

The paper presents the results obtained by using NASTRAN and ANSYS finite element codes to predict doming of the THUNDER piezoelectric actuators during the manufacturing process and subsequent straining due to an applied input voltage. To effectively use such devices in engineering applications, modeling and characterization are essential. Length, width, dome height, and thickness and important parameters for users of such devices. Therefore, finite element models were used to assess the effects of these parameters. NASTRAN and ANSYS used different methods for modeling piezoelectric effects. In NASTRAN, a thermal analogy was used to represent voltage at nodes as equivalent temperatures, while ANSYS processed the voltage directly using piezoelectric finite elements. The results of finite element models were validated by using the experimental results.