Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) enjoy a wide range of important applications in a variety of industries. MEMS, that consist of arrays of thin beams and/or plates, with cross-sections in the order of microns and lengths in the order of tens to hundreds of microns, are of concern here. Dynamics of such systems under electrical actuation, including damping, is of interest to this project.
Simulations of fully-coupled problems, that include mechanical, electrical and fluidic fields, will be carried out in this project. The Finite Element Method will be primarily used to model the structure, while a recently proposed novel Boundary Element Method will be used to model the exterior electrical and fluid fields. A key feature of this project is the implementation of the Fast Multipole Method to simulate large-scale models of MEMS very efficiently without sacrificing accuracy.
This project is expected to be a major breakthrough for MEMS simulation. Findings from this research will be rapidly incorporated into graduate courses at Cornell and Cincinnati, and disseminated in scientific journals, conferences and websites. A workshop on Fast Multipole Methods, led by Professor N. Nishimura of Kyoto University, is planned during the Seventh World Congress on Computational Mechanics in Los Angeles in 2006. Fellowships will be provided to US graduate students for their participation in this workshop.
