Multi-field coupled simulation and structural design of piezoelectric synthetic jet actuator

Piezoelectric synthetic jet actuators can generate a certain amount of thrust by generating a non-constant vortex ring jet at the nozzle. It does not have a motor or rotor, which makes it advantageous and provides significant advantages in areas such as flying vehicles. In order to improve the propulsion drive performance of the actuator, its structure needs to be optimized and designed. In this paper, a coupled flow-solid-piezoelectric multiphysics field simulation model is first constructed, which solves the problem that the previous simulation process was not efficient and accurate enough. Then, an innovative proposal is made to apply the Archimedean polyhedral structure to the multi-piezoelectric membrane wrapped synthetic jet actuator. For the three configurations of cube, truncated octahedron, and truncated dodecahedron, key parameters such as vibrator displacement, peak velocity of jet, recoil thrust, thrust-to-weight ratio, and force efficiency are comparatively analyzed, and the performance enhancement effect is verified through experiments. The results show that the thrust-to-weight ratios of the cubic, truncated octahedron, and truncated dodecahedron structures are 0.38, 1.43, and 5.83, respectively, and the force efficiencies are 0.66, 3.0, and 6.8, respectively, which proves that the new geometrical configurations significantly enhance the jet strength and energy efficiency and lay a foundation for the engineering design of the micro-propulsion system of jet vehicles.