*WINNER* Investigation of Coinciding Orthogonal Two-Dimensional Structure-borne Traveling Waves

Abstract

Inspired by serpentine locomotion in animals, structure-borne traveling waves (SBTWs) have been investigated as means of propulsion in fluids and solid-state motion. SBTW are steady-state waves which propagate across a finite structure. One way to generate SBTWs is by using two-mode excitation. With this method, the structure is mechanically coupled with two actuators that are excited at a common frequency but with a phase difference. Two-mode excitation uses the modal properties of the structure to generate such traveling waves. SBTWs generated using two-mode excitation are designed to propagate along a given direction, normally determined by the location of actuator pair.

This paper investigates the superposition of orthogonally propagating SBTWs for general-planar particle motion in directions that are not aligned with the paired actuators. SBTW are excited using two-mode excitation in a thin plate using macro-fiber composite piezoelectric actuators. This approach allows for only two pairs of actuators to propagate waves across the plate in any direction along its surface. Numerical simulations are conduced to investigate the superposition of SBTW using the Finite Element Method. Several combinations of unidirectional traveling waves are investigated and the efficiency of this approach is evaluated.