Capacitive comb drives are commonly used both as actuators and position sensors. The following model focuses on position measurement. Many approaches exist for positional measurements with MEMS devices, of which capacitance measurement is...
This tutorial shows how you can use the Electromechanics interface in COMSOL's MEMS Module to model Electrostriction. Electrostrictive materials (e.g. PMN-PT) exhibit nonlinear strain as a function of electric field. This 2D...
Surface micromachined thin films are often subject to residual stress. This COMSOL Multiphysics example describes a thin film resonator with straight or folded cantilever beam springs. The resonance frequencies of the resonator are...
Thermoelastic damping, which arises when you subject a material to cyclic stress, is an important factor when designing MEMS resonators. The stress brings about deformation, where materials heat under compressive stress and cool under...
Active microvalves are common components in microfluidic systems. In a thermomechanically actuated microvalve, an electric current generates movement by resistively heating the actuator structure, thereby causing mechanical stress and...
In nature, geckos use dry adhesion forces to climb walls. They have inspired researchers to develop synthetic gecko foot hairs to be used in, for example, robot applications. This model contains the nano/micro hierarchy of a synthetic...
This tutorial model shows how a user-defined coordinate system can be used to create any type of directional polarization of a piezoelectric material. Results are shown for the case of radial polarization of a piezoelectric disk. The...
This benchmark model computes the total force acting on a vibrating disc in the frequency and time domains and compares both results with expressions derived analytically. When the vibration amplitude is small enough that the system is...
