Numerical simulation and experimental study of valveless piezoelectric mixing pump with built-in obstacles

Micro-mixers and piezoelectric pumps have been studied as independent parts, which achieves only single mixing or pumping functions. A new valveless piezoelectric mixing pump (VPMP) driven by a sinusoidal signal is proposed in this paper to achieve a structure with both pumping and mixing functions. It accomplishes this by placing obstacles in the pump chamber and in the flow channel then adding active mixing. Because it is small in size, has a simple structure and is easy to control, it can be used in micro mixing applications. In this study, numerical simulation analysis using the Fluent software tests if the new VPMP has good mixing and pumping performance, and analyzes the effect of the obstacles. Simultaneously, the results of numerical simulation are verified with experiments. It was proven that the flow rate of the VPMP can reach 12.26 mL/min, and that the liquid can achieve uniform mixing. Moreover, the obstacle placed in the pump chamber has a more obvious impact on the mixing capability, and the obstacle placed in the channel has a more obvious impact on the flow rate. In addition, with the increase of the amplitude of driving signal, the flow rate of the VPMP increased correspondingly. With the increase of the frequency, the flow rate first increased and then decreased. The capability of mixing increased with an increase of working frequency. The experimental results showed that the VPMP can achieve good pumping and mixing performance, and that one structure can possess both mixing and pumping functions.