A new structure of Tesla coupled nozzle in synthetic jet micro-pump

[Display omitted] •A new valveless micro-pump using nozzle and tesla element is developed.•Numerical and experimental works are presented.•The micro-pump improves the pumping performance.•The device achieves 14 mL/min at 100 Vpp corresponding to a backpressure of 5kPa. Synthetic jet pump is a potential technique to improve the pumping performance by introducing a smart structure which can enhance counter-rotating vortexes. Aligning with this approach, a new structure of valveless micro-pump is developed in this work. The mechanism of the present micro-pump is based on the combination of the nozzle and a tesla element to rectify the synthetic jet. The new structure of “ace of spades” nozzle, named Tesla coupled nozzle, creates series of vortexes at the orifice of the pump chamber that allows to attenuate the reversed flows while fluid is drawn through the pump. The present micro-pump is simple but robust and can perform at rather low voltages.