Design Simulations of a Micropump with Multiple Actuating Mechanisms

A design of a valveless micropump with two different pumping mechanisms has been investigated in this study. The micropump consists of three nozzle/diffuser elements with an actuator unit at their side wall or top wall. The actuator unit is used to create pressure difference in the pump chambers. It is this pressure difference that propels the working fluid. A computational analysis was conducted to investigate a performance characteristic of the proposed micropump. The coupling model was developed by considering a fluid-membrane interaction within the micropump. Based on the simulation results, pumping mechanism and frequency highly affected the average flow rate of the micropump. The average flow rate of the micropump increased, reached a maximum value, and decreased with a pumping frequency. The average flow rate of the top wall micropump was about 1,000,000 times higher than that of the side wall micropump.