No abstract

A valveless microfluidic pump fabricated by additive fabrication technology is presented. Nozzle/diffuser structures are used to direct the flow of liquid currents inside the PZT-based micropump. A unique design using the collision of two inlet currents helps reduce the back-flow during the suction phase and promotes mixing ability. The micropump is simulated and a positive flow rate is observed at the outlet. The performance of the pump is further investigated at different driving frequencies and voltages. Simulation study on the nozzle/diffuser helps determine an efficient configuration of the nozzle/diffuser of 6º opening angle. The proposed micropump is suitable for low-cost disposable applications and is capable of delivering a controlled amount of liquid.

In this paper, a PZT synthetic jet that can function as both an efficient pumping and mixing device is developed. Compare with the conventional design where the practice of controlling the internal flow is undertaken by microvalves structure, this approach promotes the durability and allows the device to work with different liquids at high Reynold number without losing of backflow from the diffuser, therefore provides efficient mixing. The pumping performance is applicable for commercialized counterparts while the homogeneous medium was obtained at downstream in the experiments, which was further confirmed by simulation. Notably, the chaotic mixing feature of the device is also applicable for immiscible liquids with the micro-droplet formation result at the outlet.

No abstract