Low Frequency Piezoelectric Synthetic Jets

Active cooling is often required for circuit boards with high heat generation densities. Synthetic jets driven with piezoelectric actuators offer interesting capabilities for localized active cooling of electronics due to their compact size, low cost and substantial cooling effectiveness. The design of synthetic jets for specific applications requires practical design tools that capture the strong fluid structure interaction without long run times. There is particular interest in synthetic jets that have a low operating frequency to reduce noise levels. This paper describes how common finite element (FE) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes can be used to calculate parameters for a synthetic jet fluid structure interaction (FSI) model that only requires a limited number of degrees of freedom and is solved using a direct approach for low frequency synthetic jets. Tests are performed based on impinging on a heated surface to measure heat transfer enhancement. The test results are compared to the FSI model results for validation and agreement is found to be good in the frequency range of interest from 200 to 500 Hz.Copyright © 2010 by ASME