Dynamic Analysis of Electrostatic Actuators Using Radial Basis Function Collocation Method

Dynamic problems of actuators are numerically formulated by adopting the radial basis function collocation method. Electrostatic actuation is achieved by applying a voltage difference between the opposite electrode and the deformable beam. The partial differential equations of actuator dynamic problems are then transformed into a discrete eigenvalue problem by utilizing the radial basis function collocation method. The actuator model considers those factors affecting the dynamic behavior of electrostatic actuators, i.e. the taper ratio, residual stress, beam length and gap size. Numerical results obtained using the radial basis function collocation method are compared with numerical results derived by using the differential quadrature method to assess the efficiency and systematic procedure of this novel approach for nonlinear differential equations. The radial basis function collocation method is a highly effective numerical technique for deriving partial differential equations.