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The purpose of this paper is to present a computational study to investigate the effects of rectangular cavity design of a piezoelectrically driven micro‐synthetic‐jet actuator on generated flow.

Flow simulations were done using a compressible Navier‐Stokes solver, which is based on finite element method implementation of a characteristic‐based‐split (CBS) algorithm. The algorithm uses arbitrary Lagrangian‐Eulerian formulation, which allows to model oscillation of the synthetic jet's diaphragm in a realistic manner. Since all simulated flows are in the slip‐flow‐regime, a second order slip‐velocity boundary condition was applied along the cavity and orifice walls. Flow simulations were done for micro‐synthetic‐jet configurations with various diaphragm deflections amplitudes, cavity heights, and widths. All of the simulation results were compared with each other and evaluated in terms of the exit jet velocities, slip‐velocities on the orifice wall and instantaneous momentum fluxes at the jet exit.

It is shown that compressibility and rarefaction have important effects on the flow field generated by the micro‐synthetic‐jet actuator. The effect of the geometrical parameters of the cavity to important flow features such slip and phase lag are presented.

The paper reports results of a systematical study of the flow field inside a micro‐scale synthetic‐jet actuator, providing designers of such devices additional information for sizing the cavity within slip flow regime. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the CBS, together with slip boundary conditions can be successfully used to compute such flows.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the utilization of the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method for moving‐boundary/deforming‐domain micro‐scale gas flow problems. Furthermore, a hydrodynamic model, proposed in the literature, is used to compare its results with those obtained using the DSMC method.

A micro‐scale adiabatic piston problem is analyzed using a parallel DSMC implementation for deforming domains. Initially, pressures at both sides of the piston wall are different. Consequently, frictionless piston moves toward low‐pressure compartment, keeps oscillating from one side to the other. Eventually, the piston reaches the “Mechanical equilibrium” state. Although the temperatures are different, pressures are equal at this state. The unsteady problem is analyzed until it reaches this state. Three test cases, all with the same initial conditions but different piston masses are analyzed. The time variation of the piston position, conditions in the compartments separated by the piston, are presented and compared with the results obtained from a hydrodynamic model proposed in the literature.

The results show that the DSMC and hydrodynamic results agree for the case where the piston mass is much larger than the mass of the gas inside the cylinder. But for other two cases, where the piston mass is smaller, piston motion, and conditions in the compartments separated by the piston differ for the two methods. This is attributed to the linear velocity distribution assumption of the hydrodynamic model. The DSMC results demonstrate that this assumption is not valid for cases where the piston mass is equal or less than the mass of the gas inside the cylinder.

Implementation of the DSMC method for problems with deforming domain is presented and a limitation for applicability of hydrodynamic model for these problems is shown.