| Abstract: | This paper suggests a poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) piezoelectric diaphragm actuator used in a novel fatigue test method for thin metal films. A thin‐film metal specimen is stamped on top of the actuator using a stamping epoxy. As the actuator vibrates, the stress in the specimen increases until it fails under fatigue. A finite element model of the actuator is built, and its vibration amplitude is confirmed to be in a good agreement with experiment. Then, a model of the specimen is added to this model to simulate the vibration of the specimen for fatigue test. Stress analysis of the specimen at a driving voltage of 200 V0?p confirms that this actuator can increase the stress in the specimen to near 1 GPa, which is high enough for the fatigue test of metals such as titanium. In the experiment, a thin‐film titanium specimen is stamped on top of the actuator which is then vibrated. The stress in the fatigue gauge on thin‐film specimen increased until the specimen failed under fatigue. This shows that the proposed PVDF actuator is suitable for the fatigue test of thin‐film metals such as titanium. © 2012 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |
