Design of a novel pump for bio-applications

Abstract

Fluid driven devices have been widely used in many applications, such as pumping, circulating, and cooling systems in handling liquid. Their driving conditions are highly dependent on the operation purposes. Some of them work with high pressure and high flow rate without the need of flow stability. On the other hand, the steady flow with low pressure and flow rate is required for bio-applications. In a perfusion system for culturing cells, a suitable shear stress from a cultivated fluid is one of key factors to reproduce the fluid conditions of cells in a living organism. A special pump is needed to provide a steady flow rate and stress in such system. In this study, a novel design of the pump constituted by a housing and a screw-type rotor with micro-channels was proposed. To understand the flow phenomena in this design, both computational modeling and real experiment are utilized. In the experiment, a minimum rotational speed is needed to drive the fluid flow. In the modeling, the steady state with low pulsation was achieved within a short period of time. A perfusion system with 7.8% variation in flow rate could be obtained in comparison with traditional peristaltic pump with up to 29% variation in flow rate. Steady fluid flow for a perfusion system then could be obtained in this screw-type pump.