A Novel Biomimetic Flapping Fan for Electronics Cooling

This paper presents a novel piezoelectric flapping fan. The fan includes a bio-inspired thin wing attached to piezoelectric bending actuator supported through two connecting members. When activated by an AC signal, the piezoelectric actuator deflects up and down, inducing the wings to oscillate around their neutral position, generating a net air flow. The performance of the fan was characterized experimentally using a custom flow measurement system based on pressure difference and a high-speed camera. The cooling capability of the fan was also demonstrated with a fan-heatsink setup. The experimental results show this fan is capable of generating significant flow rate, thus making it a promising candidate for electronics cooling.