Numerical Investigation on The Performance Of A Conical-Tube Valveless Piezoelectric Micropump

To better investigate the working mechanism and internal flow characteristics of the conical-tube valveless piezoelectric micropump, this paper presents a three-dimensional transient simulation of the micropump based on dynamic mesh approach. The simulation model is constructed using ANSYS Fluent, where the dynamic deformation of the piezoelectric actuator is implemented through user-defined functions. The working fluid is assumed to be incompressible and turbulence. The key structural parameters affecting the output characteristics of the micropump are analyzed. The simulation results indicate that both the flow rate and rectification efficiency of the micropump increase with increasing the minimum cross-sectional width of the conical tube. When the minimum width reaches 200 μm, the rectification efficiency can reach up to 16.45%. The radius of the micropump chamber has almost no effect on both flow rate and efficiency. Although the flow rate increases with increasing the amplitude of the piezoelectric actuator, the rectification efficiency decreases. These findings establish a theoretical foundation for the structural optimization and performance enhancement of valveless piezoelectric micropumps.