Direct Numerical Simulation of Synthetic Jet Coupled to Forced Convection Cooling in a Channel Flow

A synthetic jet (SJ) is a microfluidic device that uses the “zero-net-mass-flux” concept to create a compact cooling solution and provide a net positive momentum flux to the local environment. SJs have been studied extensively for natural convection heat transfer, but there is a limited data available for SJs in cross flow regimes. This paper presents results based on direct numerical simulation of a SJ in a confined heat transfer channel with and without cross flow. Studied SJ had a deforming boundary that oscillated at 1000 Hz and was placed at a high orifice-to-plate distance ratio of 20. The flow field inside the device with a moving boundary was modeled in a coupled manner to the flow field outside of the device for 80 oscillation cycles. The coupled study of the flow fields inside and outside of the cavity revealed their interaction towards an unstable flow field. Moreover, comparison between SJ's and continuous jet's (CJ) cooling performance was performed with the same net mass flow rate and identical jet outlet temperatures. Without cross flow, CJ, and with cross flow, SJ outperformed in terms of heat removal. The remarkable difference in spatial evolution of CJ and SJ explains the better performance of SJ in cross flow regime. In the studied high orifice-to-plate distance, CJ stream was unable to penetrate effectively through the crossflow, while the vortical structures created by SJ were able to do so and impinge on the target surface with heat transfer augmentation at upstream. Furthermore, the SJ's cavity heating was found to be a limiting factor in its capability to achieve high heat transfer coefficients in confined channels, which needs to be addressed to maintain its reliable heat removal performance.