Jet impingement cooling using fluidic oscillators: an experimental study

A growing portion of the thermal load on board airplanes is due to densely packed electronic systems. This increased thermal load along with constraints on weight and volume have made simple and reliable cooling solutions an urgent need in the aerospace industry. There is a wealth of cooling solutions available in order to meet these demands, the simplest and most adaptable of which is probably jet impingement cooling. In this study, fluidic oscillators capable of producing pulsating jets were used to cool a heated surface and were then compared to equivalent steady jets. Although pulsating jets can be produced using a number of devices, fluidic oscillators offer the advantage of not having any moving parts. These oscillators are sustained by a self-induced internal flow instability and can function at different scales. Although the major part of this work is based on prototypes that produce jets with sub-millimetric widths, designs at one tenth that scale, i.e. with an exit slot width of 50 µm, are also presented. Reynolds numbers ranging from ReD = 3500 to 5250 and jet-to-plate spacing from 1D to 10D were studied (where D is the initial width of the jet). The Nusselt number distribution is found for each case and a comparison is made between the performance of equivalent steady and pulsating jets based on the average Nusselt number.

Very Large Eddy Simulation of Flow and Heat Transfer in a Pulsating Impinging Jet

The steady impinging jets applied in turbomachine have been comprehensively studied but the pulsating jets still need to be further researched. The flow field and heat transfer characteristics of pulsating impinging jet impinging on a flat plate have been simulated using the improved very large eddy simulation established with SST k–ω model. Two time-mean Reynolds numbers (6,000 and 23,000) in the conditions of frequency = 10Hz and steady state at the constant jet–to–surface distance (6D) were considered. The velocity, vortices, and Nusselt number distributions on the plate surface were investigated to emphasize on the vortex structures in the flow and its relation to the heat transfer. The investigation has revealed the advantage of the improved very large eddy simulation for predicting the dynamical generating process of flow structures in pulsating jets. Calculated results showed pairs of vortices were organized and induced from the jet exit, and propagated along with the jet region periodically. The vortices grew with the entrainment towards the ambient fluid and resulted in accelerated interaction in the wall jet region. Meanwhile, the vortices had strong interaction with the core region and weakened velocity in the core region. Results showed that the time–mean local Nusselt number of pulsating jet was lower in the stagnation region at both investigated Re numbers but not reduced in the wall jet region.

Hydrodynamic Noise of Pulsating Jets through Bileaflet Mechanical Mitral Valve

Experimental research results of hydrodynamic noise of pulsating flow through a bileaflet mechanical mitral valve are presented. The pulsating flow of pure water corresponds to the diastolic mode of the cardiac rhythm heart. The valve was located between the model of the left atrium and the model of the left ventricle of the heart. A coordinate device, on which a block of miniature sensors of absolute pressure and pressure fluctuations was installed, was located inside the model of the left ventricle. It is found that the hydrodynamic noise of the pulsating side jet of the semiclosed valve is higher than for the open valve. The pressure fluctuation levels gradually decrease with the removal from the mitral valve. It is established that at the second harmonic of the pulsating flow frequency, the spectral levels of the hydrodynamic noise of the semiclosed bileaflet mechanical mitral valve are almost 5 times higher than the open valve. With the removal from the mitral valve, spectral levels of hydrodynamic noise are decreased, especially strongly at the frequency of the pulsating water flow and its higher harmonics.

A Comparison of Classical and Pulsating Jets in Crossflow at Various Strouhal Numbers

Investigation of the classical and pulsating jet in crossflow (JICF) at a low Reynolds number (Re = 100) has been performed by the LES method based on varied velocity ratios (r= 1~4). Time-averaged particle trajectories are compared in the classical and pulsating JICF. The formation mechanism and the corresponding flow characteristics for the counter-rotating vortex pair (CRVP) have been analyzed. An unexpected “vortex tail” has been found in the JICF at higher velocity ratio due to the enhanced interactions indicated by the increased jet momentum among the CRVP, upright vortices, and shear layers. The analysis of time-averaged longitudinal vorticity including a coupling mechanism between vortices has been performed. The returning streamlines appear in the pulsating JICF, and two extra converging points emerge near the nozzle of the jet at different Strouhal numbers. The temperature profiles based on the iso-surface for the classical and pulsating JICF have been obtained computationally and analyzed in detail.

Optimization Arrangement of Two Pulsating Impingement Slot Jets for Achieving Heat Transfer Coefficient Uniformity

In this paper, an optimization was performed to achieve uniform distribution of convective heat transfer coefficient over a target plate using two impinging slot (air) jets. The objective function is the root mean square error (Erms) of the local Nusselt distribution computed by computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations from desired Nusselt numbers. This pattern search minimized this objective function. Design variables are nozzle widths, jet-to-jet distance, jet-to-target plate distance, frequency of pulsations (for pulsating jets), and the flow rate. First, an inverse design is performed for two steady jets for simplicity and the obtained errors for three different desired Nusselt numbers, NuD = 7, 10, and 13, were 20.73%, 20.08%, and 22.92%, respectively. Uniform distribution of heat transfer coefficient for two steady jets was not achieved. Thus, two pulsating jets are considered. The range of design variables for pulsating state is as same as steady-state and heat transfer rates increased about 400% over steady-state due to the effects of pulsations in inlet velocity. Thus, in the pulsating state, optimization must be performed for the desired Nusselt numbers around four-times NuD in the steady-state, i.e., NuD = 28, 40, and 52. The Erms reduced less than 0.01% and distribution of heat transfer coefficient for all cases was uniform. An experimental study using an inverse heat conduction method (conjugate gradient method with adjoint equation) has been performed and the experimental results for the case of NuD = 52 are presented. The estimated distribution of Nusselt number on the target plate with the numerical distribution has around 3.2% relative error with optimal configuration.

Experimental and Measurement Uncertainty Associated With Characterizing Slurry Mixing Performance of Pulsating Jets at Multiple Scales

Understanding how uncertainty manifests itself in complex experiments is important for developing the testing protocol and interpreting the experimental results. This paper describes experimental and measurement uncertainties, and how they can depend on the order of performing experimental tests. Experiments with pulse-jet mixers in tanks at three scales were conducted to characterize the performance of transient-developing periodic flows in Newtonian slurries. Other test parameters included the simulant, solids concentration, and nozzle exit velocity. Critical suspension velocity and cloud height were the metrics used to characterize Newtonian slurry flow associated with mobilization and mixing. During testing, near-replicate and near-repeat tests were conducted. The experimental results were used to quantify the combined experimental and measurement uncertainties using standard deviations and percent relative standard deviations (%RSD) The uncertainties in critical suspension velocity and cloud height tend to increase with the values of these responses. Hence, the %RSD values are the more appropriate summary measure of near-replicate testing and measurement uncertainty.