A Multi-Fidelity Model for Simulations and Sensitivity Analysis of Piezoelectric Inkjet Printheads

Abstract

The ink drop generation process in piezoelectric droplet-on-demand devices is a complex multiphysics process. A fully resolved simulation of such a system involves a coupled fluid–structure interaction approach employing both computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and computational structural mechanics (CSM) models; thus, it is computationally expensive for engineering design and analysis. In this work, a simplified lumped element model (LEM) is proposed for the simulation of piezoelectric inkjet printheads using the analogy of equivalent electrical circuits. The model’s parameters are computed from three-dimensional fluid and structural simulations, taking into account the detailed geometrical features of the inkjet printhead. Inherently, this multifidelity LEM approach is much faster in simulations of the whole inkjet printhead, while it ably captures fundamental electro-mechanical coupling effects. The approach is validated with experimental data for an existing commercial inkjet printhead with good agreement in droplet speed prediction and frequency responses. The sensitivity analysis of droplet generation conducted for the variation of ink channel geometrical parameters shows the importance of different design variables on the performance of inkjet printheads. It further illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach in practical engineering usage.

A socio-economic multi-objective optimization approach toward enhancing public–private partnerships’ concession agreements in infrastructure development

“…Other parameters were set to fix, while the two parameters were iterated between the lower and upper bound to develop the sensitivity analysis within any two parameters and the socio-economic level. Interestingly, this analytical tool has been used recently to assess variables for leakages in buried concrete sewage pipes (Zamanian et al, 2021), electromagnetic cardiac therapy (Levrero-Florencio et al, 2020), inkjet printhead troubleshooting (Nguyen et al, 2021), renewable energy appliances (Dezan et al, 2020), among others. The findings of our study pose important considerations for further exploration in the future regarding how a set of variables can interact at various complex levels to climax in a productive and cost-effective PPP in the long term.…”