Study of oscillatory piezoelectric flow pumps using bimorph actuators with different tip geometries

摘要

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 a previous work, the working principle of a pump based on the use of bimorph piezoelectric actuators inserted in a fluid channel to generate flow was presented. The present work aims at the development of novel configurations of piezoelectric flow pumps based on the use of bimorph actuators with biomimetic tip geometries that are inspired in fish caudal fin shapes, such as ostraciiform, subcarangiform, carangiform and thunniform. The pump development consists in designing, manufacturing and experimental characterization steps. In the design step, computational models of pump configurations are built to perform sensitivity studies and to apply optimization techniques using ANSYS finite element analysis software. The prototype manufacturing is guided by the computational simulations. Electronic circuits for pump electrical excitation and control are developed and implemented. Comparisons among numerical and experimental results are also made.