Effects of structural parameters and rigidity of driving diaphragm on flow characteristics of micro valveless pump

The structure and operating principle of micro valveless pump were investigated theoretically and experimentally. The mathematical model of pressure and flow rate within the micro nozzle/diffuser was established to analyze the effects of nozzle/diffuser parameters on the output flow rate of the micro valveless pump.The experiments were carried out with different structural parameters, driving frequencies, vibration amplitudes and stiffness of the driving diaphragms. Effects of the structural parameters and driving conditions on the operation performance of the pump are discussed in detail. The work provides useful reference for structure optimization selection of the driving diaphragm of micro valveless pump.

Simulation Analysis and Experimental Verification of Spiral-tube-type Valveless Piezoelectric Pump with Gyroscopic Effect

The current research of the valveless piezoelectric pump focuses on increasing the flow rate and pressure differential. Compared with the valve piezoelectric pump, the valveless one has excellent performances in simple structure, low cost, and easy miniaturization. So, their important development trend is the mitigation of their weakness, and the multi-function integration. The flow in a spiral tube element is sensitive to the element attitude caused by the Coriolis force, and that a valveless piezoelectric pump is designed by applying this phenomenon. The pump has gyroscopic effect, and has both the actuator function of fluid transfer and the sensor function, which can obtain the angular velocity when its attitude changes. First, the present paper analyzes the flow characteristics in the tube, obtains the calculation formula for the pump flow, and identifies the relationship between pump attitude and flow, which clarifies the impact of flow and driving voltage, frequency, spiral line type and element attitude, and verifies the gyroscopic effect of the pump. Then, the finite element simulation is used to verify the theory. Finally, a pump is fabricated for experimental testing of the relationship between pump attitude and pressure differential. Experimental results show that when Archimedes spiral θ=4π is selected for the tube design, and the rotation speed of the plate is 70 r/min, the pressure differential is 88.2 Pa, which is 1.5 times that of 0 r/min rotation speed. The spiral-tube-type valveless piezoelectric pump proposed can turn the element attitude into a form of pressure output, which is important for the multi-function integration of the valveless piezoelectric pump and for the development of civil gyroscope in the future.

Advances in Valveless Piezoelectric Pump with Cone-shaped Tubes

This paper reviews the development of valve- less piezoelectric pump with cone-shaped tube chrono- logically, which have widely potential application in biomedicine and micro-electro-mechanical systems because of its novel principles and deduces the research direction in the future. Firstly, the history of valveless piezoelectric pumps with cone-shaped tubes is reviewed and these pumps are classified into the following types： single pump with solid structure or plane structure, and combined pump with parallel structure or series structure. Furthermore, the function of each type of cone-shaped tubes and pump structures are analyzed, and new direc- tions of potential expansion of valveless piezoelectric pumps with cone-shaped tubes are summarized and deduced. The historical argument, which is provided by the literatures, that for a valveless piezoelectric pump with cone-shaped tubes, cone angle determines the flow resistance and the flow resistance determines the flow direction. The argument is discussed in the reviewed pumps one by one, and proved to be convincing. Finally, it is deduced that bionics is pivotal in the development of valveless piezoelectric pump with cone-shaped tubes fromthe perspective of evolution of biological structure. This paper summarizes the current valveless piezoelectric pumps with cone-shaped tubes and points out the future development, which may provide guidance for the research of piezoelectric actuators.

Analysis on Flow Field of the Valveless Piezoelectric Pump with Two Inlets and One Outlet and a Rotating Unsymmetrical Slopes Element

Typically,liquid pump and liquids mixer are two separate devices.The invention of piezoelectric pump makes it possible to integrate the two devices.Hower,the existing piezoelectric mixing-pumps are larger because the need the space outside the chamber,and another shortcome of them is that they cannot adjust the mixing ratio of two liquids.In this paper,a new piezoelectric pump being capable of integrating mixer and pump is presented,based on the theory of the piezoelectric pump with the unsymmetrical slopes element（USE）.Besides the features of two inlets and one outlet,the piezoelectric pump has a rotatable unsymmetrical slopes element（RUSE）.When the pump works,two fluids flow into the inlet channels respectively.Then the RUSE controls the ratio of the two flows by adjusting the flow resistances of the two inlet channels.The fluids form a net flow due to the USE principle,while they are mixed into a homogeneous solution due to strong turbulence flow field and complex vortices generated by RUSE in the chamber.And then the solution flows through the outlet.Firstly,the theoretical analysis on this pump is performed.Meanwhile,the flow field in the chamber is calculated and simulated.And then,the relationship between the flows of the two channels and the rotating angle of the RUSE is set up and analyzed.Finally,experiment with the proposed pump is carried out to verify the numerical results.A RUSE with 20° slope angle is used in the experiment.Four sets of data are tested with the RUSE at the rotating angles of 0°,6°,11°,and 16°,respectively,corresponding to the numerical models.The experimental results show that the empirical data and the theoretical data share the same trend.The maximum error between the theoretical flow and the experimental flow is 11.14%,and the maximum error between the theoretical flow ratio of the two inlets and the experimental one is 2.5%.The experiment verified the theoretical analysis.The proposed research provides a new idea for integration of micro liquids mixer and micro liquids pump.

Theory and Experimental Verification on Valveless Piezoelectric Pump with Multistage Y-shape Treelike Bifurcate Tubes

Among most traditional piezo water cooling systems, piezoelectric valve pumps are adopted as their driving sources. The valves in these pumps induce problems of shock and vibration and also make their structure complicated, which is uneasy to minimize and reduce their reliability and applicability of the whole system. In order to avoid these problems caused by valve structure, a novel valveless piezoelectric pump is developed, which integrates both functions of transforming and cooling. The pump’s Y-shape tree-like construction not only increases the efficiency of cooling but also the system reliability and applicability. Firstly, a multistage Y-shape treelike bifurcate tube is proposed, then a valveless piezoelectric pump with multistage Y-shape treelike bifurcate tubes is designed and its working principle is analyzed. Then, the theoretical analysis of flow resistance characteristics and the flow rate of the valveless piezoelectric pump are performed. Meanwhile, commercial software CFX is employed to perform the numerical simulation for the pump. Finally, this valveless piezoelectric pump is fabricated, the relationship between the flow rates and driving frequency, as well as the relationship between the back pressure and the driving frequency are experimentally investigated. The experimental results show that the maximum flow rate is 35.6 mL/min under 100 V peak-to-peak voltage (10.3 Hz) power supply, and the maximum back pressure is 55 mm H2O under 100 V (9 Hz) power supply, which validates the feasibility of the valveless piezoelectric pump with multistage Y-shape treelike bifurcate tubes. The proposed research provides certain references for the design of valveless piezoelectric pump and improves the reliability of piezo water cooling systems.

Analysis of the Flow Rate Characteristics of Valveless Piezoelectric Pump with Fractal-like Y-shape Branching Tubes

Microchannel heat sink with high heat transfer coefficients has been extensively investigated due to its wide application prospective in electronic cooling. However, this cooling system requires a separate pump to drive the fluid transfer, which is uneasy to minimize and reduces their reliability and applicability of the whole system. In order to avoid these problems, valveless piezoelectric pump with fractal-like Y-shape branching tubes is proposed. Fractal-like Y-shape branching tube used in microchannel heat sinks is exploited as no-moving-part valve of the valveless piezoelectric pump. In order to obtain flow characteristics of the pump, the relationship between tube structure and flow rate of the pump is studied. Specifically, the flow resistances of fractal-like Y-shape branching tubes and flow rate of the pump are analyzed by using fractal theory. Then, finite element software is employed to simulate the flow field of the tube, and the relationships between pressure drop and flow rate along merging and dividing flows are obtained. Finally, valveless piezoelectric pumps with fractal-like Y-shape branching tubes with different fractal dimensions of diameter distribution are fabricated, and flow rate experiment is conducted. The experimental results show that the flow rate of the pump increases with the rise of fractal dimension of the tube diameter. When fractal dimension is 3, the maximum flow rate of the valveless pump is 29.16 mL/min under 100 V peak to peak （13 Hz） power supply, which reveals the relationship between flow rate and fractal dimensions of tube diameter distribution. This paper investigates the flow characteristics of valveless piezoelectric pump with fractal-like Y-shape branching tubes, which provides certain references for valveless piezoelectric pump with fractal-like Y-shape branching tubes in application on electronic chip cooling.

3D FEM Analyses on Flow Field Characteristics of the Valveless Piezoelectric Pump

Due to the special transportation and heat transfer characteristics,the fractal-like Y-shape branching tube is used in valveless piezoelectric pumps as a no-moving-part valve.However,there have been little analyses on the flow resistance of the valveless piezoelectric pump,which is critical to the performance of the valveless piezoelectric pump with fractal-like Y-shape branching tubes.Flow field of the piezoelectric pump is analyzed by the finite element method,and the pattern of the velocity streamlines is revealed,which can well explain the difference of total flow resistances of the piezoelectric pump.Besides,simplified numerical method is employed to calculate the export flow rate of piezoelectric pump,and the flow field of the piezoelectric pump is presented.The FEM computation shows that the maximum flow rate is 16.4 m L/min.Compared with experimental result,the difference between them is just 55.5%,which verifies the FEM method.The reasons of the difference between dividing and merging flow resistance of the valveless piezoelectric pump with fractal-like Y-shape branching tubes are also investigated in this method.The proposed research provides the instruction to design of novel piezoelectric pump and a rapid method to analyse the pump flow rate.

Design and testing of micro fluidic chemical analysis chip integrated with micro valveless pump

A new structure and working principle of the chip integrated with micro valveless pump for capillary electrophoresis was proposed in this paper. The micro valveless pump with plane structure has advantages of simple structure, and the process technology is compatible with existing micro chips for capillary electrophoresis. Based upon the mathematical model, simulation study of micro pump was carried out to investigate the influence of structural parameters on flow characteristics, and the performance of the integrated micro pump was also tested with different control parameters. The simulation results agree with the experimental results. Three samples, which are amino acid, fluorescein and buffer solution, have been examined with this chip. The results of the primary experiments showed that the micro valveless pump was promising in the integration and automatization of miniature integrated fluidic systems.

Multi-Field Analysis and Experimental Verification on Piezoelectric Valve-Less Pumps Actuated by Centrifugal Force

A piezoelectric centrifugal pump was developed previously to overcome the low frequency responses of piezoelectric pumps with check valves and liquid reflux of conventional valveless piezoelectric pumps. However, the electro-mechanical-fluidic analysis on this pump has not been done. Therefore, multi-field analysis and experimen- tal verification on piezoelectrically actuated centrifugal valveless pumps are conducted for liquid transport appli- cations. The valveless pump consists of two piezoelectric sheets and a metal tube with piezoelectric elements pushing the metal tube to swing at the first bending resonant fre- quency. The centrifugal force generated by the swinging motion will force the liquid out of the metal tube. The governing equations for the solid and fluid domains are established, and the coupling relations of the mechanical, electrical and fluid fields are described. The bending res- onant frequency and bending mode in solid domain are discussed, and the liquid flow rate, velocity profile, and gauge pressure are investigated in fluid domain. The working frequency and flow rate concerning different components sizes are analyzed and verified through experiments to guide the pump design. A fabricated pro- totype with an outer diameter of 2.2 mm and a length of 80 mm produced the largest flow rate of 13.8 mL/min at backpressure of 0.8 kPa with driving voltage of 80 Vpp. Bysolving the electro-mechanical-fluidic coupling problem, the model developed can provide theoretical guidance on the optimization of centrifugal valveless pump characters.

Electromagnetic Pump Made in a Hybrid Polymer-Ceramic Technology--Preliminary Results

This paper describes technology of the electromagnetic pump made in a hybrid polymer-ceramic technology. The pumping mechanism is realized with a mutual excitation between an electromagnetic coil and a neodymium magnet bonded to a flexible membrane. A PDMS （poly（dimethylsiloxane）） material was used to manufacture a membrane sufficient for the presented micropump. A fish trap construction is adapted to the ceramic technology. The bonding process of ceramics and polymer, using plasma oxidation method, is described as well. Moreover, a membrane deflection depending on magnet dimensions and applied voltage was measured.

Theoretical Analysis and Experimental Verification on Flow Field of Piezoelectric Pump with Unsymmetrical Slopes Element

Regular valveless piezoelectric pumps have rectifying elements outside their chambers to produce net flow. These rectifying elements outside the chamber will increase the overall volume of the pump and prevent its minimization. Valveless piezoelectric pump with unsymmetrical slopes elements（USE）, proposed in this paper, differs from other valveless pumps in that it is easy to be minimized by developing the chamber bottom as such a rectifying element. In this research, the working principle of the proposed pump was analyzed first. Numerical models were thereby established and numerical simulation was conducted to the chamber flow field with the method of time-dependent velocity. The effects of the USEs on the flow field in the chamber were shown clearly in simulation. And the particular feature of flow field in the chamber was discovered. It behaves a complex flow field, in which strong turbulent occurs companying a lot of vortexes in different directions and different sizes. This feature is just opposite to what regular piezoelectric pumps expect： a moderate flow field. The turbulent flow could be used to have different liquids stirred and well mixed in the chamber to produce homogeneous solution, emulsion or turbid liquid. Meanwhile, numerical simulation also presents the effect of the angles difference of the two slopes upon the flow field, and upon the flow rate of the pump, which fits to the theoretical analysis. Experiments with the proposed pump were also conducted to verify the numerical results. In these experiments, six USEs with different slope angles were used for efficiency tests, which proved the validity and reliability of the numerical analysis. The data obtained from numerical analysis agree well with that from the experiments. The errors ranged from 4.4% to 14.8% with their weighted average error being 9.7%.

Design and Experiment of Streamlined Piezoelectric Pump with Low Vortex and Large Flow Rate

Valveless piezoelectric pump is widely used in the medical,however,there is a general and difficult problem to be solved:Low vortex and large flow rate are not compatible,resulting in the blood prone to thrombosis during blood delivery.In this paper,a new valveless piezoelectric(PZT)pump with streamlined flow tubes(streamlined pump)is proposed.The design method and the working principle of the pump are analyzed.The velocity streamlines are simulated,and the results demonstrate that there are no obvious vortexes in the flow tube of the streamlined pump.Five prototype pumps(two cone pumps and three streamlined pumps)are designed and fabricated to perform flow rate and flow resistance experiments.The experimental results illustrate that the maximum flow rate of the streamlined pump is 142 mL/min,which is 179%higher than that of the cone piezoelectric pump,demonstrating that the streamlined pump has a large flow rate performance.This research provides an inspiration for future research on simple structure,low vortex and large flow rate volume-type pumps,and also provides a useful solution for thrombosis preventing.

箭头型阻流体无阀压电泵的设计与试验

针对三棱柱阻流体无阀压电泵输出流量小的问题,基于箭头结构流阻小的特点设计了一种箭头型阻流体无阀压电泵,介绍了该泵的结构及工作原理。利用有限元软件模拟仿真了箭头型阻流体无阀压电泵的泵腔速度流线图,并将该泵与三棱柱阻流体无阀压电泵的阻力特性进行了对比分析。结果表明,箭头型阻流体无阀压电泵能单向运输流体,且其效率较三棱柱阻流体无阀压电泵提升了19.51%。利用3D打印机制作了2种泵的样机,进行了流量和压差试验。试验结果表明,在300 V的驱动电压下,箭头型阻流体无阀压电泵的最大流量和压差分别为17.40 g/min和470 Pa,较三棱柱阻流体无阀压电泵分别提升了22.71%和37.03%。

锥形阶梯流管无阀压电泵仿真及实验

针对锥形流管无阀压电泵输出流量小、回流流量多等问题,结合锥形流管和溢流坝阶梯式结构的阻流作用,研制了一种锥形阶梯流管无阀压电泵。对锥形阶梯流管的流阻特性进行了理论分析,利用有限元软件对锥形阶梯流管无阀压电泵和锥形无阶梯无阀压电泵进行了流场仿真对比,制作了锥形阶梯流管无阀压电泵实验样机,测量不同频率和驱动电压下两种泵的流量。实验结果表明:当驱动电压峰峰值为180 V、驱动频率为18 Hz时,锥形无阶梯流管无阀压电泵流量最大为6.20 ml/min,锥形阶梯流管无阀压电泵输出流量最大为8.04 ml/min,与锥形无阶梯流管无阀压电泵相比泵最大输出流量提升了29%,验证了锥形阶梯流管无阀压电泵能有效抑制锥形流管中的回流现象,且相比于无阶梯流管无阀压电泵具有更好的输出流量。

“Y”形流管无阀压电泵模拟与试验

对"Y"形流管无阀压电泵内部流场及泵流量特性进行了模拟及试验研究。采用CFX软件对"Y"形流管无阀压电泵泵腔内的流场特性进行了模拟分析。结果表明:"Y"形流管无阀压电泵工作时泵腔内的压强变化很小,涡旋对流体传输活体细胞及长链大分子基本无影响。实际制作了"Y"形流管无阀压电泵,并通过改变"Y"形流管的几何尺寸,研究了压电泵进出口端压差的变化规律。试验结果表明,压差随支管夹角增大而减小,并且当两支管宽的和接近主管宽时,压差值达到最小,当支管夹角为5°,宽为1.2 mm时,压差达到最大725 Pa。

微型无阀泵流动特征仿真与试验研究

介绍了微型无阀泵的结构及基本原理,应用 CFD（Computational fluid dynamics）技术对典型驱动频率下的流场流态进行了动态仿真。在不同结构参数、控制频率、振动幅值及驱动膜刚度等多种条件下,对无阀泵性能进行了试验研究。讨论了结构参数、驱动条件等因素对无阀泵流动特性的影响,分析了无阀泵管道周期、振动频率、驱动膜刚度等因素与流动参数之间的关系,在此基础上提出了微型无阀泵设计与控制的改进方案。

一种改进的平板式无阀压电流体泵

通过对带有缓冲腔和不带有缓冲腔的平板式无阀压电泵的对比实验 ,发现前者的性能大大优于后者 ,其输出能力提高了近 4倍。由于带有缓冲腔的无阀压电泵的最佳工作频率高于不带有缓冲腔的同类型无阀压电泵 ,使其可以获得比较平稳的流量输出。当锥形角为 6 .4°,驱动电压为 12 0 V,工作频率为 73Hz时 ,所制作的带有缓冲腔的压电泵具有最佳的工作性能 ,其进、出水口处的压力差达到 8.5 3× 10 2

一种仿生型无阀压电泵

针对传统的容积型流阻差式无阀压电泵具有吸入周期和排出周期,存在着流动脉动大、流量小的问题,提出一种新型的鱼鳍摆动式无阀压电泵。模仿在鱼类中巡游速度最快的金枪鱼的鱼体结构,设计了压电双晶片结构的压电振子,并将其尾鳍设计成柔性叶片状。分析了压电双晶片结构悬臂梁的受力变形、模态振型在机电转换效率方面的关系。研制了泵的样机并测量了激励电压在100 V时泵的流量。实验结果表明:振子工作在1阶振型时,泵水效应不明显;振子工作在2阶振型时,谐振频率为740 Hz,泵的流量为266 mL/min;振子工作在3阶振型时,谐振频率为1 280 Hz,泵的流量为105 mL/min。

多级“Y”型流管无阀压电泵的原理与试验验证

针对目前微流体混合器多需要外接动力源,且多数微混合器只能进行液体混合而不能输送液体的问题,提出将无阀压电泵引入微混合器领域,并研制了一种集混合与输送于一体的多级"Y"型流管无阀压电泵。首先,提出了多级"Y"型流管,进而设计了多级"Y"型流管无阀压电泵,并分析其工作原理;然后,对该无阀压电泵的流管流阻特性及泵流量进行理论分析;同时,利用有限元软件对多级"Y"型流管无阀压电泵进行了流场模拟,结果表明该压电泵具有单向传输作用。最后,制作了多级"Y"型流管无阀压电泵样机,并进行了泵流量与背压试验。试验结果显示:驱动电压峰峰值为100V,频率为16Hz时,流量达到最大,为16.2ml/min;驱动电压峰峰值为100V,频率为14Hz时,输出背压最大,约为64mm水柱。得到的试验数据证明了多级"Y"型流管无阀压电泵的有效性。

平板式无阀压电流体泵的初步研究

介绍了一种新型平板式无阀压电泵 ,给出了此种无阀压电泵的基本结构。通过对所制样机的测试分析 ,认为决定这种无阀压电泵性能的因素主要有锥形角度、工作频率和驱动电压等。锥形角在 5°～ 12°之间 ,工作在19Hz下 ,所制作的压电泵具有较佳的工作性能 ,当锥形角为 11.3°,工作频率为 19Hz,驱动电压为 12 0 V时 ,泵的进、出水口处的压力差为 2 3 5 .2 Pa。