TY - GEN A1 - Wall, Franziska A1 - Schenk, Hermann A. G. A1 - Melnikov, Anton A1 - Kaiser, Bert A1 - Schenk, Harald T1 - A non-destructive electro-acoustic method to characterize the pull-in voltage of electrostatic actuators T2 - Nonlinear Dynamics N2 - For electrostatic actuators, the pull-in marks an upper limit for the operation range. Once reached, the electrodes come into contact and are shorted without further protection. A non-destructive measurement technique to predict this failure mode is of high interest to allow, e.g. fabrication monitoring or reliability studies. To this end, we develop a surprisingly simple nonlinear lumped parameter model (LPM) for a rather complex electrostatic actuator, designed for an in-ear loudspeaker application. It turns out that a single degree-of-freedom model with only one parameter is sufficient. Our key approach is to experimentally determine this free model parameter by analysing harmonic distortions at low frequencies. Harmonic distortions are a very sensitive tool for nonlinearities. Our method is suggested by simulations with a 2D stationary finite element method (FEM), demonstrating how the analysis of harmonic distortions for voltages far below the pull-in can predict not only the DC pull-in but also the quasi-static AC pull-in voltages at different working points. The distortion analysis of electrostatic actuator ensembles therefore seems a viable route for their non-destructive characterization in the nonlinear domain. KW - Pull-in KW - Electrostatic actuator KW - Microspeaker KW - Harmonic distortions Y1 - 2023 UR - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11071-023-08811-1 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11071-023-08811-1 SN - 1573-269X SN - 0924-090X VL - 111 IS - 19 SP - 17809 EP - 17818 ER -