Numerical modeling of a micropump without mobile parts actuated by thermocavitation bubbles

摘要

In recent years the progress of lab-on-a-chip devices has required the development of moving-parts free microfluidic systems. Different fluid-pumping mechanisms have been explored, such as electroosmotic, magnetohydrodynamic and laser-induced cavitation bubbles. In this work, we report the mathematical modeling of a Tesla valve thermocavitation-based micropump. The model consists of the transient solution of the mass and momentum conservation equations for an incompressible, constant property, Newtonian fluid within different configurations of Tesla valve geometry, implemented in a commercial software. Post-processing of the primary solution focused on the study of the net flow induced by the micropump, and the volumetric efficiency. Performance of the different micropump configurations is discussed in terms of these parameters. Our findings demonstrate that the Tesla valve based geometry for micropumps is versatile depending on its final application, therefore the micropump could be used in a wide variety of applications including drug delivery, fuel delivery for micrometric combustion cells, refrigeration liquids for cooling of microelectronic systems, among others.