MEMS-based electrodynamic synthetic jet actuators for flow control applications

Synthetic jet actuators are used in various applications, such as separation control, mixing enhancement, and thermal management. Each of these requires the design to be optimized to meet specific performance requirements. This paper presents a design and scaling analysis of an electrodynamic synthetic jet actuator using a lumped element modeling approach. Various performance parameters, such as the resonant frequency, output volumetric flow rate and velocity, and jet formation, are studied as a function of device scale and current density. The viability and potential advantages of microscale synthetic jets are discussed.