Design, Simulation and Experimental Validation of a Piezoelectric Micropump with Modified Tesla-type Valves

Using No-Moving-Part (NMP) valves in microfluidic systems has been one of the most effective methods for transport and delivery of unidirectional flow. The Tesla microvalve (as a type of NMP valve) has been investigated and a new designed shape is proposed based on numerical analysis of fluid flow inside valves. The main criterion used for evaluation of valve performance is Diodicity. Comparison with previous types proves the superiority and novelty of the proposed valve. Besides, a three-dimensional modeling of a diaphragm micropump together with the proposed valves was carried out. Piezoelectric device was chosen as an actuator of the micropump. Tri electromechanical-fluid coupling effects have been taken into account on the interfaces and boundaries. The simulation shows that the new system is more efficient than conventional nozzle-diffuser micropump in terms of both maximum pressure head and flow rate. Finally the numerical model was experimentally validated by real prototype fabrication of the new micropump. There was good agreement between numerical results in three dimensions and experimental results. The general trend is also the same for numerical and experimental results. However some deviations were observed. These deviations may be due to the fabrication limitations and some simplification in computational modeling.

کلیدواژه ها:

Tesla Microvalves ، Diodicity ، Piezoelectric Micropump ، Simulation