Simulations and analysis of a piezoelectric micropump

A number of micropumps have been proposed in the last few years based on different actuating principles and fabricated by different technologies. However, many of those micropumps have been designed taking into account primarily available microfabrication technologies rather than appropriate pump performance analysis. In fact, not all papers are available in the literature presenting theoretical models usable to describe the functioning and predict the performance of those micropumps. In this paper, we present a new micropump model and FEA method suitable for guiding the design and predicting the performance of a micropump actuated by a piezoelectric actuator. The model takes into account the influence of piezoelectric transducer and pump geometry. Simulations have been performed and compared with results of experiments on a prototype micropump fabricated in our laboratory.