Performance characteristics of valveless and cantilever-valve micropump

This paper presents comparison between two classes of micropump which are valveless micropump and cantilever-valve micropump. These micropumps consist of basic components which are diaphragm, pumping chamber, actuation mechanism, inlet and outlet. Piezoelectric actuation is carried out by applying pressure on the micropump diaphragm to produce deflection. The micropumps studied in this paper had been designed with specific diaphragm thickness and diameter; while varying the materials, pressure applied and liquid types used. The outer dimension for both micropumps is 4mm x 4mm x 0.5mm with diameter and thickness of the diaphragm are 3.8mm and 20 mu m respectively. Valveless micropump was shown in this paper to have better performance in mechanical and fluid analysis in terms of maximum deflection and maximum flow rate at actuation pressure 30kPa vis-a-vis cantilever-valve micropump. Valveless micropump was shown in this study to have maximum diaphragm deflection of 183.06 mu m and maximum flow rate with 191.635 mu L/s at actuation pressure 30kPa using silicon dioxide as material.