Sweeping Flow Heat Transfer With Piezoelectric Fans Over Vertical Flat Surfaces
Piezoelectric fans have been investigated for electronics cooling over the last several decades. The primary usage of these meso scale-vibrating fans has been to create sweeping flows over the heated surfaces. In this paper, an experimental study to understand the heat transfer behavior of a thin piezo fan with 7.5 cm length and 1 cm width has been performed for a range of operating conditions and fan-to-heater distance. Results showed that piezo fans consume very small amount of electrical power in return providing considerable COPs. Heat transfer enhancements were found to be over 12 at the resonance frequencies. Later, attention was turned to comparison of this technology with other meso scale cooling devices such as synthetic jets and rotary fans. Volumetric COP and heat transfer characteristics are compared for a range of conditions.