Analytical solutions of the electrostatically actuated curled beam problem

Abstract

This works presents analytical expressions of the electrostatically actuated initially deformed cantilever beam problem. The formulation is based on the continuous Euler-Bernoulli beam model combined with a single-mode Galerkin approximation. We derive simple analytical expressions for two commonly observed deformed beams configurations: the curled and tilted configurations. The derived analytical formulas are validated by comparing their results to experimental data and numerical results of a multi-mode reduced order model. The derived expressions do not involve any complicated integrals or complex terms and can be conveniently used by designers for quick, yet accurate, estimations. The formulas are found to yield accurate results for most commonly encountered microbeams of initial tip deflections of few microns. For largely deformed beams, we found that these formulas yield less accurate results due to the limitations of the single-mode approximation. In such cases, multi-mode reduced order models are shown to yield accurate results. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.