Reduced-Order Investigation of Synthetic Jet Cooling for Electronic Applications

Abstract

Synthetic jets are meso-scale devices operating at zero-net-mass-flux principle. These devices produce periodic jet-like streams, which have local velocities 10–20 times greater than the average fan velocities. As a result, positioning one or more of these jets close to a heat sink causes high-velocity air currents in tightly spaced fin gaps and enhances the surface heat transfer. A reduced-order modeling (ROM) approach was followed in simulating the heat transfer analysis of commercial heat sink with synthetic jet. Unsteady state results are matched with steady state results as part of the ROM approach. The methodology is implemented on two problems (i.e canonical problem of jet impinging perpendicularly on a flat plate and jet blowing on a commercial heat sink). Results from ROM for two cases are validated against experimental results. It is found that, this approach provides 90% time saving within ±5% accuracy. Modeling via ROM is much faster and cheaper computationally; hence this approach can be used for studying the system-level convective heat transfer enhancement of heat sinks using synthetic jets.