Search Results

Piezoelectrically driven Synthetic Jet Actuators (SJAs) are a class of pulsatile flow generation devices that promises to improve upon steady forced cooling methods in air flow generation, surface cleaning and heat transfer applications. Their acoustic emissions and vibrations, an intrinsic by-product of their operation, needs to be mitigated for applications in noise-sensitive contexts. Already used for aerodynamic control [1, 2], thrust vectoring [3], spray control [4], and heat transfer [5, 6], they are increasingly being considered for sensor lens cleaning in automobiles. In this study, the sound generation mechanisms of SJAs are discussed and an active noise reduction method is proposed and evaluated. Driven with a single frequency sinusoidal input, SJAs produce acoustic emissions at harmonic frequencies within the frequency range of speech communication.