Combination Rules for Multichamber Valveless Micropumps

Author

Azarbadegan, Alireza ; Eames, Ian ; Wojcik, Adam ; Cortes-Quiroz, Cesar A. ; Suen, William

Author_Institution

Univ. Coll. London, London, UK

Volume

22

Issue

5

fYear

2013

fDate

Oct. 2013

Firstpage

1133

Lastpage

1139

Abstract

The general design rules indicate that when identical macroscale pumps (each with a maximum flowrate Q_m, and maximum pressure drop ΔP_max) are combined in series, the maximum flowrate is Q_m, but the maximum pressure drop becomes 2ΔP_max, while combined in parallel the maximum flowrate becomes 2Q_m, and the maximum pressure is ΔP_max. In this paper, we test whether these design rules apply to microscale valveless micropumps using highly resolved CFD calculations. The variation of flow with pump pressure drop is studied by varying the resistance of an external circuit. The analysis confirmed that the macroscale design rules for macroscale pumps are applicable to microscale pumps. The study also enabled the influence of different forcing strategies on the pump performance to be analyzed.

Keywords

computational fluid dynamics; design engineering; microfluidics; micropumps; combination rules; external circuit; highly resolved CFD calculations; identical macroscale pumps; macroscale design rules; maximum flowrate; maximum pressure drop; microscale valveless micropumps; multichamber valveless micropumps; pump performance; pump pressure drop; CFD; microfluidics; micropump; microsystem design; multichamber; numerical analysis; valveless;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1057-7157

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JMEMS.2013.2253717

Filename

6507239