Design and modeling of an electromagnetic peristaltic micropump

Microfluidics or the ability to manipulate micro volumes of a fluid is a field in expansion. As some examples of potential applications are cited drug delivery systems, electronic cooling devices, micro lab on a chip or dosage systems. Driving fluid from one point to another in those systems is a major challenge. In order to achieve this goal various micropump designs have been proposed. In this paper the design of an electromagnetic peristaltic valveless micropump is proposed. The peristaltic motion is created by inducing body forces in a membrane. Those body forces are due to the interaction of the current circulating in the membrane and a magnetic field created by Halbach arrays. An analytical model for the membrane displacement is proposed and validated using a finite element model. The model is based on the assumption that the effect of the currents on the magnetic field can be neglected. This decouples the problem in a magnetic problem independant of the membrane displacement and a mechanical problem where an external load caused by the currents and the magnetic field is applied. The aim of the proposed model is to provide a tool to evaluate the pumping rate at low computational cost which will be used in optimization algorithm.