Synthetic Jet Cooling Part I: Overview of Heat Transfer and Acoustics

The paper deals with an overview of the principles of heat transfer and acoustics related to a promising alternative for fans: synthetic jet cooling. After a short discussion of the benefits, the background and the principles underlying the physics are treated. The problems with optimisation through numerical analysis are highlighted. An accompanying paper discusses the experimental results in terms of heat transfer and noise for a special embodiment: an acoustic dipole cooler.