Abstract
The model experiment, the numerical calculation and the theoretical analysis are performed to investigate the characteristic of a viscous micropump by using a rotating cylinder in an elbow duct. In the experiment, the low Reynolds flow in the centimeter-scale micropump is realized by using glycerin as working fluid. The flow is visualized by an aluminum powder for Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) analysis. In the theoretical analysis, the 2D lubrication theory is adopted and the pressure performance formula of the viscous micropump in the elbow duct is proposed. The performance curves derived from the formula agree well with the numerical results. Therefore, the proposed formula can be used for the design of the viscous micropump in the elbow duct. The performance curve, the φ-ΨRe curve, becomes a straight line with a negative slope. In the experimental and numerical results, the two vortices which rotate in the opposite direction of the rotating cylinder are observed. With an increase of the angle of the elbow duct, the pressure dimensionless number at the zero flow coefficient increases and the flow coefficient at the zero pressure coefficient slightly decreases. The pressure performance is degraded at the normalized partition lengths smaller than 0.05.
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