The characters exploration of a piezoelectric pump with fishtail-shaped bluffbody

This paper focuses on a new structure in the valveless piezoelectric pump, which has a combination structure of the conical flow channel and two fishtail-shaped bluffbodies in the chamber of the pump. The fishtail-shaped bluffbody is inspired by the shape of the swimming fish to diminish the backflow and optimize the performance of the pump. The performance is studied by changing the shape and size of the inlet and outlet, the bluff bodies’ height and the space between two bluff bodies. The results show that the 3 mm × 3 mm square inlet, 3 mm diameter round outlet, 3 mm height of bluffbodies, 6.8 mm pitch of bluffbodies has a best performance in all 10 prototypes, which implements a maximum flow rate of 87.5 ml/min at 170 V 40 Hz with a noise of 42.6 dB. This study makes a preliminary investigation and theoretical explanation for the subsequent optimization of this structure, improved the performance of the valveless piezoelectric pump, broaden the thinking of the design for the bluffbody for better performance of the valveless piezoelectric pump.