Two-dimensional streaming flows induced by resonating, thin beams.
Miniaturized resonating slender beams are finding increased applications as fluidic actuators for portable electronics cooling. Piezoelectric and ultrasonic "fans" drive a flexural mode of the beam into resonance thus inducing a streaming flow, which can be used to cool microelectronic components. This paper presents analytical, computational, and experimental investigations of the incompressible two-dimensional streaming flows induced by resonating thin beams. Closed-form analytical streaming solutions are presented first for an infinite beam. These are used to motivate a computational scheme to predict the streaming flows from a baffled piezoelectric fan. Experiments are conducted to visualize the asymmetric streaming flows from a baffled piezoelectric fan and the experimental results are found to be in close agreement with the predicted results. The findings are expected to be of relevance in the optimal design and positioning of these solid-state devices in cooling applications.