The influence of the geometry of the pump chamber on the characteristics of the thermopneumatic-drive surface tension micropump

This paper presents the influence of the geometry (shape and size) of the pump chamber on the performance of a surface tension micropump having neither a membrane nor a valve. The micropump is actuated by both the thermopneumatic pressure and the surface tension. For various shapes of micropump geometries we compared the micropump characteristics such as the discharge time, the discharge volume and the refill time obtained from experiments and FVM simulation. The simulation and experimental results show good agreement. We found the influence of the expansion angle of the inlet and the front air channel direction on the micropump characteristics. This result is useful to design an efficient surface tension micropump.