Numerical Analysis of Mechamical Micropump Using Membrane-based Check-Valves for Microfluidic Applications

In this paper, we mentioned a numerical analysis method for simulation of a micropump for microfluidic applications. Each section of the micropump, including microvalves and pumping chamber, were studied using three-dimensional fluid-structure interaction analysis and their operational characteristic equations were extracted independently. These extracted equations were used to solve time-domain pressure equation and to obtain the flow rate of micropump. Afterwards, we were able to study different effects of actuation pressure and actuation frequency on micropump’s flow rate with and without the presence of outlet backpressure. The results of microvalve show that it lets fluid pass through after passing threshold pressure of about 100 Pa. However, it blocks fluid flow in reverse mode with extremely negligible leakage rate. The results of micropump operation show that when actuation frequency is 1 Hz and actuation pressures are equal to 1000, 1500, 2000 Pa, pumping flow rate reaches 30, 48 and 65 mm3/min, respectively. Also, this micropump can overcome maximum backpressure of approximately 950 Pa when it was actuated using pressure of 1000 Pa, regardless of its actuation frequency. These results show that the simulated micropump reasonably agrees to the microfluidic and lab-on-a-chip applications.