Unsteady flow simulations for synthetic jets in quiescent air

• Published in: Journal of mechanical science and technology Vol. 37; no. 10; pp. 5173 - 5183
• Main Authors: Ko, Jaeik, Park, Jihyeon, Choi, Minsuk
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Seoul Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers 01.10.2023; Springer Nature B.V; 대한기계학회
• Subjects: Actuators; Compressibility; Concentrated loads; Control; Dynamical Systems; Engineering; Flow simulation; Industrial and Production Engineering; Mach number; Mathematical models; Mechanical Engineering; Original Article; Piezoelectricity; Synthetic jets; Two dimensional jets; Unsteady flow; Vibration; 기계공학; Piezoelectric disc; Vortex ring; Synthetic jet; Unsteady simulation
• ISSN: 1738-494X; 1976-3824
• DOI: 10.1007/s12206-023-0920-9

Unsteady flow simulations were conducted to investigate the flow generated by a synthetic jet actuator in quiescent air. The predicted synthetic jets by 2D axisymmetric and 3D simulations were compared to each other and experimental data to check their accuracy. It was found that the 2D axisymmetric simulations were as accurate as the 3D simulations to predict synthetic jets in quiescent air. Thereafter, three different membrane profiles, namely a simple trigonometric model, a distributed load model and a concentrated load model, have been tested to determine which one is most appropriate to describe the motion of a piezoelectric disc, which was attached to a cavity and was oscillated to generate synthetic jets, using 2D axisymmetric unsteady simulations. Finally, a critical value of Mach number was found in this work for considering the compressibility of air based on the numerical simulations for synthetic jets.