Investigations on performance of valveless piezoelectric micropump with concave tuning diffuser/nozzle elements in transient flow

A diffuser/nozzle is one of the most frequently-used channels in a valveless piezoelectric micropump, but its efficiency has not been satisfactory. Hence, optimisation of the channel structure is of great significance. The concave tuning diffuser/nozzle element can obtain steady flow rectification under different Reynolds numbers, and its efficiency is much higher than the conventional diffuser/nozzle element whose diverging angle is >25°. Therefore, the application of concave tuning on the micropump is promising and worth anticipating. In this work, the experiment and numerical simulation were carried out under the conditions of voltage (50–250 vpp), excitation frequency (10–1000 Hz) and Rec (100–1000). The results show that the performance of a micropump with concave tuning is better than that with a straight sidewall, as the pump efficiency is improved significantly. The position and size of vortexes are of great significance to the pump efficiency of the micropumps. The distribution of pressure in the micropumps with concave tuning and straight sidewall was displayed. With the increase of characteristic Reynolds number, the adverse pressure gradient occurred. Compared with the straight sidewall, the concave tuning structure can better withstand adverse pressure gradient and delay the boundary layer separation in the channel.