Abstract
This paper presents a compliant actuator using thermoelectric effects. Compliant thermoelectric actuator is a new type of compliant mechanism-based actuators which utilizes thermal expansion and contraction of appropriate parts to obtain deformation. Thermoelectric devices are used as a heat source for thermal actuators in order to high actuating response times and further enhancement of output force and displacement. In this paper, we discusses a new level set-based topology optimization method using a fictitious interface energy model for the design of compliant thermoelectric actuators. A numerical example of compliant thermal actuator design using thermoelectric devices are presented to confirm the usefulness of the proposed method.
