Development of a piezoelectric pump with unfixed valve

Abstract

Piezoelectric pump, driven by piezoelectric actuator, is one of the most promising micropumps in compact system. However, the application of piezoelectric pump is limited by the check valve, which is not efficient enough and needs careful fixation. This work presents a novel design with unfixed check valve, which greatly simplifies the assembly of valve-based piezoelectric pump and improves the output performance. The valve is unfixed with a small gap to obtain variable stiffness at different working stages, making it open more quickly. The piezoelectric pumps with three different valve gaps were designed, fabricated, and tested. The pump with the unfixed valve shows a 25.6% flow rate improvement compared with the fixed check valve without reducing the output pressure. To reveal the mechanism of the flow rate improvement, we investigated the flow resistance and the volumetric efficiency of the piezoelectric pump. The results show that the unfixed valve increases the volumetric efficiency of the piezoelectric pump, which improves the flow rate. The prototype pump achieved the maximum output performance of 162 ml/min and 33 kPa. The power consumption was less than 100 mW, reaching a pump efficiency of 21.7%.

Design and development of a piezoelectric-hydraulic hybrid actuator with quarter-wavelength tubes

“…many advantages [1]. For example, piezoelectric materials have the characteristics of high-power density, fast response, and no interference from magnetic fields [2][3][4], and pumps based on piezoelectric materials have the advantages of simple and compact structure and low power consumption, which can be used in many occasions where ordinary electrohydraulic pumps cannot be replaced [5][6][7].…”

Matching the Optimal Operating Mode of Polydimethylsiloxane Check Valves by Tuning the Resonant Frequency of the Resonator in a Piezoelectric Pump for Improved Output Performance

“…According to different flow guiding elements, piezoelectric pumps can also be divided into two categories: valveless type [ 22 , 23 ] and valve type [ 24 , 25 ]. Although valveless piezoelectric pumps possess simple structures and better high-frequency characteristics, their power and efficiency are poorer than pumps with valves [ 26 ].…”