Design and flow simulation of a micro steam jet pump

Abstract

The development of micropump is directly related to the popularization and application of microfluidic systems. Recently, microfluidic systems have more urgent requirements for stable operation and simple structure of micropumps. For these purposes, a novel micro steam jet pump which uses planar induction heating to evaporate the initial fluid is presented. This new micropump could generate continuous flow with merits of no moving parts, stable operation and easy integration. A negative pressure is formed flowed with high-speed flow of vapor in the chamber to pump and eject liquid, and then realize continuous pumping. The working chamber of the micropump is calculated with aerodynamic function, and the simulation analysis is carried on with COMSOL Multiphysics 5.5. By changing key working parameters, appropriate working conditions are adopted with simulation analysis. When the primary vapor temperature is 403.15 K, the inlet width of the tapered section of the mixing chamber is 0.4 mm and the outlet width of the diffuser is 0.5 mm, the mingling and enhancing pressure performance of the micro steam jet pump is better. The optimization of design and simulation involved in this paper provided a good guidance for the design and experimental study of the micro steam jet pump.