Free convection air cooling from a vertically placed heat sink is enhanced by upward concurrent pulsated air flow generated by mesoscale synthetic jets. The cooling enhancement is experimentally studied. An enhancement factor is introduced and defined as the ratio of convection heat transfer coefficients for jet-on (enhanced convection) to jet-off (natural convection) cooling conditions. To obtain the two coefficients, heat transfer by radiation is excluded. A high-resolution infrared (IR) camera is used to capture detailed local temperature distribution on the heat sink surface under both cooling conditions. Analysis is carried out to obtain local convection heat transfer coefficients based on measured local surface temperatures. The enhancement of convectional cooling by synthetic jets can be then quantified both locally and globally for the entire heat sink. Two categories of thermal tests are conducted. First, tests are conducted with a single jet to investigate the effects of jet placement and orifice size on cooling enhancement, while multiple jets are tested to understand how cooling performance changes with the number of jets. It is found that the cooling enhancement is considerably sensitive to jet placement. Jet flow directly blowing on fins provides more significant enhancement than blowing through the channel between fins. When using one jet, the enhancement ranges from 1.6 to 1.9 times. When multiple jets are used, the heat transfer enhancement increases from 3.3 times for using three jets to 4.8 times for using five jets. However, for practical thermal designs, increasing the number of jets increases the power consumption. Hence, a new parameter, “jet impact factor (JIF),” is defined to quantify the enhancement contribution per jet. JIF is found to change with the number of jets. For example, the four-jet configuration shows higher JIF due to higher contribution per jet than both three-jet and five-jet configurations.
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Heat Transfer Impact of Synthetic Jets for Air-Cooled Array of Fins
Ri Li,
Ri Li
School of Engineering,
University of British Columbia,
Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
e-mail: sunny.li@ubc.ca
University of British Columbia,
Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
e-mail: sunny.li@ubc.ca
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William D. Gerstler,
William D. Gerstler
Energy Systems Laboratory,
GE Global Research,
Niskayuna, NY 12309
GE Global Research,
Niskayuna, NY 12309
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Mehmet Arik,
Mehmet Arik
School of Engineering,
Ozyegin University,
Cekmekoy,
Istanbul 34794, Turkey
Ozyegin University,
Cekmekoy,
Istanbul 34794, Turkey
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Benjamin Vanderploeg
Benjamin Vanderploeg
Electronics Design ECOE,
GE Aviation Systems,
Grand Rapids, MI 49512
GE Aviation Systems,
Grand Rapids, MI 49512
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Ri Li
School of Engineering,
University of British Columbia,
Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
e-mail: sunny.li@ubc.ca
University of British Columbia,
Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
e-mail: sunny.li@ubc.ca
William D. Gerstler
Energy Systems Laboratory,
GE Global Research,
Niskayuna, NY 12309
GE Global Research,
Niskayuna, NY 12309
Mehmet Arik
School of Engineering,
Ozyegin University,
Cekmekoy,
Istanbul 34794, Turkey
Ozyegin University,
Cekmekoy,
Istanbul 34794, Turkey
Benjamin Vanderploeg
Electronics Design ECOE,
GE Aviation Systems,
Grand Rapids, MI 49512
GE Aviation Systems,
Grand Rapids, MI 49512
1Corresponding author.
Contributed by the Heat Transfer Division of ASME for publication in the JOURNAL OF HEAT TRANSFER. Manuscript received October 22, 2014; final manuscript received September 17, 2015; published online October 13, 2015. Assoc. Editor: Ali Khounsary.
J. Heat Transfer. Feb 2016, 138(2): 021702 (10 pages)
Published Online: October 13, 2015
Article history
Received:
October 22, 2014
Revised:
September 17, 2015
Citation
Li, R., Gerstler, W. D., Arik, M., and Vanderploeg, B. (October 13, 2015). "Heat Transfer Impact of Synthetic Jets for Air-Cooled Array of Fins." ASME. J. Heat Transfer. February 2016; 138(2): 021702. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4031647
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