New configurations of oscillatory flow pumps using bimorph piezoelectric actuators

Precision flow pumps have been widely studied over the last three decades. They have been applied in the areas of Biology, Pharmacy and Medicine in applications usually related to the dosage of medicine and chemical reagents. In addition, thermal management solutions for electronic devices have also been recently developed using these kinds of pumps offering better performance with low noise and low power consumption. In previous works was presented the working principle of a pump based on the use of a bimorph piezoelectric actuator inserted in a fluid channel to generate flow. This work presents a novel configuration of piezoelectric flow pumps using a bimorph piezoelectric actuator of different aspect ratio. Sensibility studies of the rectangular cross-sectional area channel are conducted computationally (CFD) and three parameters are investigated: resonance frequency and oscillation amplitude of the piezoelectric actuator, and pressure inside the channel. Also, experimental tests are conducted to verify the influence of clamps' rigidity and actuator's insulator. The experimental results show that improving these two aspects it is possible to achieve higher flow rates.

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