Piezoelectric fans have been shown to provide substantial enhancements in heat transfer over natural convection while consuming very little power. These devices consist of a piezoelectric material attached to a flexible cantilever beam. When driven at resonance, large oscillations at the cantilever tip cause fluid motion, which in turn results in improved heat transfer rates. In this study, the local heat transfer coefficients induced by piezoelectric fans are determined experimentally for a fan vibrating close to an electrically heated stainless steel foil, and the entire temperature field is observed by means of an infrared camera. Four vibration amplitudes ranging from 6.35to10mm are considered, with the distance from the heat source to the fan tip chosen to vary from 0.01 to 2.0 times the amplitude. The two-dimensional contours of the local heat transfer coefficient transition from a lobed shape at small gaps to an almost circular shape at intermediate gaps. At larger gaps, the heat transfer coefficient distribution becomes elliptical in shape. Correlations developed with appropriate Reynolds and Nusselt number definitions describe the area-averaged thermal performance with a maximum error of less than 12%.

Slender sharp-edged flexible beams such as flapping wings of micro air vehicles (MAVs), piezoelectric fans and insect wings typically oscillate at moderate-to-high values of non-dimensional frequency parameter β with amplitudes as large as their widths resulting in Keulegan–Carpenter (KC) numbers of order one. Their oscillations give rise to aerodynamic damping forces which vary nonlinearly with the oscillation amplitude and frequency; in contrast, at infinitesimal KC numbers the fluid damping coefficient is independent of the oscillation amplitude. In this article, we present experimental results to demonstrate the phenomenon of nonlinear aerodynamic damping in slender sharp-edged beams oscillating in surrounding fluid with amplitudes comparable to their widths. Furthermore, we develop a general theory to predict the amplitude and frequency dependence of aerodynamic damping of these beams by coupling the structural motions to an inviscid incompressible fluid. The fluid–structure interaction model developed here accounts for separation of flow and vortex shedding at sharp edges of the beam, and studies vortex-shedding-induced aerodynamic damping in slender sharp-edged beams for different values of the KC number and the frequency parameter β. The predictions of the theoretical model agree well with the experimental results obtained after performing experiments with piezoelectric fans under vacuum and ambient conditions.

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A piezoelectric fan is a flexible cantilever beam whose vibration is actuated by means of a piezoelectric material. Such fans have been employed for the enhancement of heat transfer by increasing the fluid circulation in regions which are otherwise stagnant. The main focus of past studies has been to predict and describe the heat transfer achievable using these devices, as well as the flow field generated by vibrating cantilevers. In order to directly compare these fans with their traditional counterparts such as small axial fans, the present work casts the performance of piezofans in terms of a characteristic often used to represent conventional fans, namely the fan curve. The primary focus of this paper is to determine the relationship between the pressure and the flow rate generated by miniature piezoelectric fans. Experimental measurements are obtained for fans with operating frequencies of 60 and 113 Hz. The maximum flow rate conditions yield nearly 30 l/min, while the greatest static pressure generated is found to be 6 Pa. The performance is highly dependent on both the vibration amplitude and frequency. Predictive relationships are developed to describe the experimental trends and provide insight into the sensitivity of pressure and flow rate to these operating parameters. These fans are directly compared to two commercially available axial fans, both in terms of overall performance and efficiency with which energy is imparted to the fluid. Piezoelectric fans are found to compare quite favorably using either of these performance metrics with a nearly order-of-magnitude increase in fan efficiency. A secondary focus of this paper is to explore the effects of fan installation details on fan performance. The proximity of surrounding walls is considered through the use of three different enclosures within which the fan is mounted. Effective inlet areas from which the air enters the fan are also identified. This paper provides a practical framework for determining the optimal placement and configuration for these fans in prototypical applications.

Cantilever structures vibrating in a fluid are encountered in numerous engineering applications. The aerodynamic loading from a fluid can have a large effect on both the resonance frequency and damping, and has been the subject of numerous studies. The aerodynamic loading on a single beam is altered when multiple beams are configured in an array. In such situations, neighboring beams interact through the fluid and their dynamic behavior is modified. In this work, aerodynamic interactions between neighboring cantilever beams operating near their first resonance mode and vibrating at amplitudes comparable to their widths are experimentally explored. The degree to which two beams become coupled through the fluid is found to be sensitive to vibration amplitude and proximity of neighboring components in the array. The cantilever beams considered are slender piezoelectric fans (approximately 6 cm in length), and are caused to vibrate in-phase and out-of-phase at frequencies near their fundamental resonance values. Aerodynamic damping is expressed in terms of the quality factor for two different array configurations and estimated for both in-phase and out-of-phase conditions. The two array configurations considered are for neighboring fans placed face-to-face and edge-to-edge. It is found that the damping is greatly influenced by proximity of neighboring fans and phase difference. For the face-to-face configuration, a reduction in damping is observed for in-phase vibration, while it is greatly increased for out-of-phase vibration; the opposite effect is seen for the edge-to-edge configuration. The resonance frequencies also show a dependence on the phase difference, but these changes are small compared to those observed for damping. Correlations are developed based on the experimental data which can be used to predict the aerodynamic damping in arrays of vibrating cantilevers. The distance at which the beams no longer interact is quantified for both array configurations.Understanding the fluid interactions between neighboring vibrating beams is essential for predicting the dynamic behavior of such arrays and designing them for practical applications.

Piezoelectric fans are vibrating cantilevers actuated by a piezoelectric material and can provide heat transfer enhancement while consuming little power. Past research has focused on feasibility and performance characterization of a single fan, while arrays of such fans, which have important practical applications, have not been widely studied. This paper investigates the heat transfer achieved using arrays of cantilevers vibrating in their first resonant mode. This is accomplished by determining the local convection coefficients due to the two piezoelectric fans mounted near a constant heat flux surface using infrared thermal imaging. The heat transfer performance is quantified over a wide range of operating conditions, including vibration amplitude (7.5–10 mm), distance from heat source (0.01–2 times the fan amplitude), and pitch between fans (0.5–4 times the amplitude). The convection patterns observed are strongly dependent on the fan pitch, with the behavior resembling a single fan for small fan pitch and two isolated fans at a large pitch. The area-averaged thermal performance of the fan array is superior to that of a single fan, and correlations are developed to describe this enhancement in terms of the governing parameters. The best thermal performance is obtained when the fan pitch is 1.5 times its vibration amplitude.

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