Performance study of a valveless piezoelectric pump with built-in semi-arc bluffbody antique tower channel

Abstract

According to the bluffbody bypass effect, the irregular bluffbody can be used to improve the valveless piezoelectric pump. This paper designs a semi-arc bluffbody based on the bluffbody bypassing principle to alleviate the phenomenon of fluid backflow. The fluid passes through the shape of the antique tower to further enhance pumping efficiency. A positive fluid flow mechanism in the pump cavity is theoretically derived. The simulation of the velocity and pressure distribution in the tower-shaped channel of the pump cavity leads to the conclusion that the forward flow has better performance than the reverse flow, and the correctness of the theory is also verified. Experiments further proved that the volume of fluid in the forward direction was reduced by 10.8% when compared to the reverse direction. The study of the height of different semi-arc bluffbody and the angle of the tower trough shows that as the height and angle increase, the flow rate grows first and then reduces. The maximum flow rate is 243.83 ml/min when the bluffbody height is 4 mm and the channel angle is 20° (220 V, 85 Hz).