Design of Novel Micro-pumps for Mechatronic Applications

Due to the rapid development and increasing usage of micro fluid instruments in recent years, their fabrication has attracted a lot of attention recently. Micro-pumps are one of the sub branches of electro-mechanics along with the non-return valves or nozzle/ diffuser elements. Because of the problems arising with non-return valves such as blocking, erosion, failure of moving parts and etc., researchers incline towards the micro-pumps with nozzle/diffuser elements which are more reliable due to the simplicity and maintenance free characteristics. The main target in this paper is to modify the design of micro-pumps in such a way to increase the net flow rates while decreasing the fabrication cost. There are mainly three micro-pumps considered. One of them is the reference micro-pump which has a single chamber, an actuated by piezoelectric, an inlet (Nozzle) and outlet (Diffuser) elements. The second one is designed by modifying the internal space of the chamber by combining the rectangular and elliptical shapes together, which is hereby, named arched chamber Micro-pump. The third one is modelled in which two reference chambers are in parallel with a single piezo-electric actuator located at the interface. In the simulation carried out, the basic elements of reference, arched chamber, and parallel micro-pumps are modelled in equivalent conditions for easy comparing. The result shows a major improvement in arched micro-pump with respect to net flow rates, by decreasing back pressure value and eddy currents.