Numerical simulation of a thermal-bubble actuated diffuser-nozzle valveless pump

Abstract

A valveless micropump actuated by thermal bubbles which are generated by an electrode heater mounted with a pair of diffuser nozzles has been numerically studied by commercial CFD software FLUENT. The relationships between the net flow rate and the superheating and heat supplying frequency have been investigated. The depth of the diffuser-nozzle micropump is 200 μm, the diameter of the actuating chamber is 1 mm, and a pair of diffuser nozzles whose gap has been expanded from 30 μm to 274 μm with an open angle of 7° are connected to the actuating chamber. The working fluid is methanol. In the numerical simulation, the flow pattern is laminar. The results show that the pump has different optimal driving frequencies at different superheating. A cycle resulting from bubble growth and shrinking costs more time at higher superheating temperature; different superheating has different optimal driving frequency; when the superheating increases, the maximum volume flow rate and the maximum pump pressure will increase simultaneously, and the optimal driving frequency decreases as well, the maximum volume flow rate and pump pressure also have the same tendency; in the condition of uncontrolled condensing, the bubble shrinking process is longer than the growth process, thus it is the determining factor to affect the pump performance. The maximum volume flow rate is 9.02 μL/min at ΔT = 15°C, and the maximum pump pressure is 680 Pa. With the increase of wall superheat, cycle including the bubble growth and condensation will become longer, resulting in a significant impact on the pumping flow; different wall superheat has different optimized frequency, increasing superheat will bring increased pumping flow and pump pressure, the optimized driving frequency will be reduced; liquid supply phase is longer than pumping phase.