A Solid State Piezoelectric Fan—Does It Actually Work?

[filker]

In the early 1980s, I proposed a similar mechanism for ensuring airflow in an asynchronous serial terminal design (3 box; main electronics, keyboard and separate monitor, similar to the DEC VT240 graphics terminal) that had to be silent. We determined that as the electronics heated up, the airflow due to convection was chaotic causing a loss of convective cooling. Adding a single sheet of bi-metal attached to a flexible plastic/nylon blade with a dimple in it and applying a voltage across a resistive strip on one side of bimetal caused the blade to slowly move in one direction, then when the voltage was removed, the blade snapped back quickly, creating a small puff of air in the direction we needed it to flow. Any time the temperature inside the enclosure got above a set point, the process was repeated. The physics and fluid dynamics behind convective flow would take over. Worked like a charm. Unfortunately, the project was cancelled, so that fan never saw its way into a commercial product.

[alexkram]

I made some of these 20 years ago when I was a phd student doing heat transfer research for a certain computer company. I made mine out of metal shim stock. I was able to get first mode bending and pretty good deflection, about 30% of the length. My project lost funding because of the tech recession that happened but I don't remember the performance being all that impressive. I did some modeling of a round one like a diaphragm that pumped air through a hole but didn't end up building a prototype. Thanks for the video, I like the flow visualization you did.

[MarcTBG]

A real solid-state fan would be an ion thruster. Piezoelectric crystals vibrate and this can induce failure in other parts, like the electrodes that connect the crystal to a source of energy.

[johnrickperez]

i am here because i heard of frore system's Solid State Active Cooling.

[jnellie]

Piezoelectric is an amazingly simple concept with a host of complicated solutions.

[maraz]

Nice concept! The "fan blade" could work better if it was uniform in rigidity, though. Seems like the tape at the end is making the assembly act as a pendulum, which starts resisting the driving force partway into the cycle. This is probably decreasing the total output by a significant amount, as only the smaller, more flexible part is moving air outwards.

[yasminesteinbauer]

There are also fans that use magnetic levitation bearings and are therefore in principle not subject to wear. But there are certainly useful applications for the fans shown if you do not need much air volume.

[adityadivine]

Just want to thank you for not making boring videos. Every other video is something completely new to me and I love it.
Can you do some videos focussed on fluid pressure differences. Like something interesting with tubes filled with water.

[EnochGitongaKimathi]

There is a company called Frore Systems that might be using a similar principle for their AirJet fan replacement. Cool tech maybe a little too late as processors are becoming more efficient.

[JohnDuthie]

Love how you find these interesting ideas scouring the internet and actually investigate them in person. I saw the Peizo fan recently on Twitter or something and now you have a video on it.

[loudblackmenfilmproduction]

I was a fan of the future, now I’m just a fan.

[scaletownmodels]

You have to check out the AirJet solid state fans by Frore Systems shown at CES. They are MEMS instead of piezo but looking pretty neat. Now if they would only let you buy some to play with. Looks like they are only going to provide them to laptop manufacturers.

[cyanidejam]

Wonderful video, I'm a fan of this

[crimsama]

And six months later, we have the airjet at CES which is basically this idea in application at a semiconductor level.

[suspense_comix]

I’ve got another idea for a solid-state fan: using static electricity.

So imagine two plates that are both conductive. And also, imagine we have some sort of way to generate static electricity, like a Van De Graff machine or a Tesla Coil.

Let’s say we apply a positive static voltage to both plates. They will repel each other because the charges don’t go anywhere.

Now, let’s apply a negative static voltage to only one of the plates. Now the plates will move closer and closer together. This is because the charges now have ways to move.

I wonder if you can use both the piezoelectric systems or the static electricity systems to generate a motor. I mean, it would be low torque and probably won’t work but I think it is kind of interesting.

[Notacet]

I’d be intersted in a part 2 where you make 30 or so in series and see if you can beat a conventional fan!

[DukeOnkled]

I feel like problems may start to emerge if you try to really scale up the concept. Bigger versions may start to get impractical. Though I wonder if a three-dimensional array of smaller fans could greatly increase airflow.

[brandonb]

There is actually a company doing chip cooling using this tech as the mechanism. Linus interviewed them and reviewed the device. It looks pretty cool.

[professorx]

I read about piezoelectric effect in pharmacology because nebulizers work that way to spray pharmacological substance in the airways.
But I didn't quite understand it completely, so thank you so much for making this video!

[markrix]

Action lab guy, you need to make a monthly CORRECTIONS episode llke a popular comedian does, it really engages the audience with comments and blesses the algorithm
Plus it's amusing
keep up the good work bud