Studies have shown that the valveless piezoelectric pump with streamline flow tubes (VPPSFTs) can increase the flow rate while reducing the vortex, which has a broad application prospect and conforms to the huge potential demand in the fields of medical treatment, sanitation, and health care. The flow runner of the VPPSFT was designed as two segments with a smooth transition between the hyperbola segment and the arc segment. However, the effect of the radius of the arc segment on pump performance is not clear. Therefore, three groups of VPPSFT with arc segments of different curvature radii were designed in this study, and the influence of curvature radius of arc segment on the pump performance was explored. On the basis of the theoretical analysis of fluid continuity and conservation of energy, the structure of VPPSFT was designed, the experimental test was carried out, and the finite element simulation software was used for numerical analysis. The results show that the output performance increases with the increase in the radius of the arc segment, and the maximum flow rate was 116.78 mL/min. The amplitude and the flow rate are almost the same trend as the frequency. This study improves the performance of the valveless piezoelectric pump and provides reference for the structure design of VPPSFT.
Growth of the initial disturbances in pulsating pipe flows was examined in this study from the point of view of Rayleigh instability. Experimental results obtained show that the instability is initiated in the developing region during the deceleration phase when an inflection point is obviously present in the velocity profile. Moreover, the results obtained are able to unveil the process regarding the disturbances get amplified and re-laminarized with respect to the phase angle and the radial location.
Imitating the structure of the venous valve and its characteristics of passive opening and closing with changes in heart pressure, a piezoelectric pump with flexible valves (PPFV) was designed. Firstly, the structure and the working principle of the PPFV were introduced. Then, the flexible valve, the main functional component of the pump, was analyzed theoretically. Finally, an experimental prototype was manufactured and its performance was tested. The research proves that the PPFV can achieve a smooth transition between valved and valveless by only changing the driving signal of the piezoelectric (PZT) vibrator. The results demonstrate that when the driving voltage is 100 V and the frequency is 25 Hz, the experimental flow rate of the PPFV is about 119.61 mL/min, and the output pressure is about 6.16 kPa. This kind of pump can realize the reciprocal conversion of a large flow rate, high output pressure, and a small flow rate, low output pressure under the electronic control signal. Therefore, it can be utilized for fluid transport and pressure transmission at both the macro-level and the micro-level, which belongs to the macro–micro combined component.
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