THERMAL AND FLUIDIC CHARACTERIZATION OF PIEZOELECTRIC FANS

The two most remarkable characteristics of§piezoelectric fans are their low noise levels and§their low power consumption. These features render§piezoelectric fans well-suited to applications in the§thermal management of portable electronic devices.§Feasibility studies conducted on piezoelectric fans§have demonstrated the viability of using these§devices in electronics cooling applications. However,§these studies lack a detailed characterization of§these devices to an extent which would lead to their§optimal integration. The cooling performance of these§fans are experimentally characterized in detail.§Experimentally it is shown that for the same cooling§performance axial fans consumed approximately 10§times more power than piezoelectric actuators. A§two-dimensional numerical model is also developed and§validated with experimental measurements. The§numerical model is used to develop fan curves for the§piezoelectric fans, using a methodology similar to§that used in constructing pump or fan curves for§conventional fans. A simplified model based on§stagnation region heat transfer in impingement flows§is also proposed to estimate the heat transfer from a§piezoelectric fan.