Design And Implementation Of Electromagnetic Synthetic Jet Actuator Underwater

Synthetic jet actuator has the merit of small size,light weight,compact structure and high efficiency.And can be fully integrated in the robot body.It is very suitable for the maneuvering of underwater robots.At present,domestic and foreign research on underwater synthetic jet actuator is relatively small,there are many issues need further research and exploration。The main purpose of this paper is to study the driving mode of synthetic jet underwater,numerical method and the force characteristics of synthetic jet in water and the synthetic jet applied in underwater robots.The most common way for the actuation of synthetic jet actuator underwater is using cams.The structure of this method is complicate and the stroke of the actuator is not adjustable.In this paper,a new type of synthetic jet actuator based on linear actuation method is proposed.The linear actuator adopted is voice coil actuator.Both the stroke and frequency of the actuator can be adjusted.The thrust characteristic of the actuator under different nozzle diameters,different actuation frequencies and different piston strokes is studied through experiment.The average thrust increase with the piston stroke and actuation frequencies while decrease with the nozzle diameter.The efficiency of the actuator is also studied.The efficiency increase with the nozzle diameter while decrease with the actuation frequency.The results show that the electromagnetic synthetic jet actuator underwater can produce the average thrust,which is a very promising and new type to the underwater robot for the attitude adjustment.In this paper,a series of underwater tests for electromagnetic actuator with piston structure and flexible structure are carried out.By comparing the experimental data,the results show that,under the same conditions,the flexible structure actuator has higher propulsive efficiency.Therefore,the design and making of flexible structure actuator has important guidance and reference significance for the research of underwater synthetic jet actuator.