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The effect of the microfluidic diodicity on the efficiency of valve-less rectification micropumps using Lattice Boltzmann Method

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Abstract

The efficiency of the valve-less rectification micropump depends primarily on the microfluidic diodicity (the ratio of the backward pressure drop to the forward pressure drop). In this study, different rectifying structures, including the conventional structures (nozzle/diffuser and Tesla structures), were investigated at very low Reynolds numbers (between 0.2 and 60). The rectifying structures were characterized with respect to their design, and a numerical approach was illustrated to calculate the diodicity for the rectifying structures. In this study, the microfluidic diodicity was evaluated numerically for different rectifying structures including half circle, semicircle, heart, triangle, bifurcation, nozzle/diffuser, and Tesla structures. The Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) was utilized as a numerical method to simulate the fluid flow in the microscale. The results suggest that at very low Reynolds number flow, rectification and multifunction micropumping may be achievable by using a number of the presented structures. The results for the conventional structures agree with the reported results.

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Acknowledgments

The research described, in this paper, was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Grant No.: OISE-0530203. Additionally, we are grateful for the technical assistance of Christian Janßen and Sören Freudiger.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA

    Ahmed Fadl, Zongqin Zhang & Donna Meyer

  2. Institute of Computational Modeling in Civil Engineering, Technical University of Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany

    Ahmed Fadl, Sebastian Geller, Jonas Tölke & Manfred Krafczyk

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  1. Ahmed Fadl
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  2. Zongqin Zhang
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  3. Sebastian Geller
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  4. Jonas Tölke
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  5. Manfred Krafczyk
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  6. Donna Meyer
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Correspondence to Ahmed Fadl.

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Fadl, A., Zhang, Z., Geller, S. et al. The effect of the microfluidic diodicity on the efficiency of valve-less rectification micropumps using Lattice Boltzmann Method. Microsyst Technol 15, 1379–1387 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-009-0901-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-009-0901-7

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