Influence of input signal on injection performance for needle driven piezoelectric micro-jet device

Due to the fast response, high precision and high working frequency, needle driven piezoelectric micro-jet devices have been applied in various industrial fields. The injection performance is important for the applications. The jetting velocity of the micro-droplets has a great influence on the ligament length and satellites. In this paper, the Fluent stimulation model of dynamic mesh motion has been established to simulate the jetting process. Meanwhile, the dependences of volume and jetting velocity of micro-droplets on input signal, including voltage, falling time, and fluid pressure, have been studied. The results show that the jetting velocity of micro-droplets can be changed and the volume is invariant by adjusting falling time, which can be used to guide the control of the needle driven piezoelectric micro-jet devices. Furthermore, the experimental system has been designed and the experiments show that the average minimum jetting velocity is about 0.724 m/s. The ligament length increases almost linearly with jetting velocity of the micro-droplets. And the optimal jetting velocity is less than 2.745 m/s, which cannot generate satellites.