Design and Fabrication of Pneumatically Actuated Valveless Pumps

In this study, a valveless pump was successfully designed and fabricated for the purpose of medium transportation. Different from traditional pumps, the newly designed pump utilizes an actuated or a deflected membrane, and it serves as the function of a check valve at the same time. For achieving the valveless property, an inlet or outlet port positioned in an upper- or lower-layer thin membrane was designed to be connected to an entrance or exit channel. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulation were conducted simultaneously to investigate the large deformation characteristics of the membranes and to determine the proper location of the inlet or outlet port on the proposed pump. Then, the valveless pump was fabricated on the basis of the proposed design. In the experiment, the maximum flow rate of the proposed pump exceeded 12.47 mL/min at a driving frequency of 5.0 Hz and driving pressure of 68.95 kPa.

Numerical simulation and experimental study on valveless piezoelectric pump with triangular obstacles

A valve less piezoelectric pump with triangular obstacles is designed and manufactured, which uses piezoelectric vibrator as power source. The working principle and theoretical flow rate of the valveless piezoelectric pump are analyzed, and its flow rate expression is derived. The flow resistance characteristics of triangular obstacles are simulated by numerical simulation. Based on the mass fraction distribution of liquid water, the forward and reverse flow resistance of triangular obstacles and the influence of triangular obstacles on pumping capacity are analyzed. Finally, two groups of test prototypes of the valveless pump are made by using the engraving machine, and the flow measurement test is carried out. The experimental results show that the valveless piezoelectric pump with triangular obstacles can realize the valveless pumping function, and the pumping flow per unit time increases with the increase of triangular obstacles in the channel, and decreases with the increase of the distance between triangular obstacles and the channel. When the driving voltage is 140V and the driving frequency is 10Hz, the maximum output flow of the piezoelectric pump is 16.26ml/min.

Mechanics of Biohybrid Valveless Pump-bot

Engineering living systems is a rapidly emerging discipline where the functional biohybrid robotics (or ‘Bio-bots’) are built by integrating of living cells with engineered scaffolds. Inspired by embryonic heart, we presented earlier the first example of a biohybrid valveless pump-bot, an impedance pump, capable of transporting fluids powered by engineered living muscle tissues. The pump consists of a soft tube attached to rigid boundaries at the ends, and a muscle ring that squeezes the tube cyclically at an off-center location. Cyclic contraction results in a net flow through the tube. We observed that muscle force occasionally buckles the tube in a random fashion, i.e., similar muscles do not buckle the tube consistently. In order to explain this anomaly, here we develop an analytical model to predict the deformation and stability of circular elastic tubes subjected to a uniform squeezing force due to a muscle ring (like a taught rubber band). The prediction from the model is validated by comparing with experiments and finite element analysis. The non-linear model reveals that the circular elastic tube cannot buckle irrespective of muscle force. Buckling state can be reached and sustained by bending and folding the tube before applying the muscle ring. This imperfection may appear during assembly of the pump or from non-uniform thickness of the muscle ring. This study provides design guides for developing advanced biohybrid impedance pumps for diverse applications.

Net flow generation in closed-loop valveless pumping

Net flow generation in valveless pumping, met in many physiological applications and recently in micropumping devices, constitutes an open fluid dynamics issue due to the complex interaction between the fluid medium and the flexible walls of the pump. In the context of the present experimental work, the conditions of the net flow generation are examined in a closed-loop horizontal valveless pump, which consists of a rigid and an elastic tube of equal diameters and lengths, and a pincher that forces the liquid within the tube to oscillate at Reynolds and Womersley numbers up to 7800 and 48, respectively. Pinching off as well as at the mid-length of the pump flexible tube, net flow is generated at certain pinching frequencies for which details are presented based on simultaneous recording of the pressure at the two tube junctions, the flow rate and the displacement of the pincher. Pinching off the mid-length of the pump at low pinching frequencies, net flow rate is practically null due to the almost identical pressure waveforms at the tube junctions, which vary in phase with the pincher motion. However, close to the first natural frequency of the hydraulic loop, the reflection of the pressure waves at the tube junctions combined with their increased phase difference cause high axial pressure gradients, which when they increase simultaneously with the squeezing of the tube, net flow rate maximization occurs. Pinching at the flexible tube mid-length area, nonzero net flow rates can also be generated, the sign of which changes when the pincher mid-point crosses the tube mid-length without being nullified.

Flexible Valveless Pump for Bio Applications

In electromechanical actuators Lorentz force law is used to convert electrical energy into rotational or linear mechanical energy. In these conventional electromechanical actuators, rigid wires conducts the electrical current and as such the types of motion generated by these actuators are limited. Recent advances in liquid metal alloys permit designing electrical wires that are stretchable. These flexible wires have been used to fabricate various flexible connections, sensors and antennas. However, there have been very little efforts to use these stretchable liquid metal wires as actuators. Building upon our previous work in this area, we have made a flexible pump which can be used in bio applications. In this design we placed a flexible polymeric substrate filled by liquid metal Galinstan between two permanent magnets. Since the pump should convey the biological cells suspended along the fluid flow, utilizing check valves may increase the risk of clog in the inlet or outlet. Therefore, our design is based on the nozzle/diffuser concept. This new pump can be considered as a peristaltic and valve-less mechanical pumps which utilizes the Lorentz force law as the actuating mechanism.

Biohybrid valveless pump-bot powered by engineered skeletal muscle

Pumps are critical life-sustaining components for all animals. At the earliest stages of life, the tubular embryonic heart works as a valveless pump capable of generating unidirectional blood flow. Inspired by this elementary pump, we developed an example of a biohybrid valveless pump-bot powered by engineered skeletal muscle. Our pump-bot consists of a soft hydrogel tube connected at both ends to a stiffer polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) scaffold, creating an impedance mismatch. A contractile muscle ring wraps around the hydrogel tube at an off-center location, squeezing the tube with or without buckling it locally. Cyclic muscle contractions, spontaneous or electrically stimulated, further squeeze the tube, resulting in elastic waves that propagate along the soft tube and get reflected back at the soft/stiff tube boundaries. Asymmetric placement of muscle ring results in a time delay between the wave arrivals, thus establishing a net unidirectional fluid flow irrespective of whether the tube is buckled or not. Flow rates of up to 22.5 μL/min are achieved by the present pump-bot, which are at least three orders of magnitude higher than those from cardiomyocyte-powered valve pumps of similar size. Owning to its simple geometry, robustness, ease of fabrication, and high pumping performance, our pump-bot is particularly well-suited for a wide range of biomedical applications in microfluidics, drug delivery, biomedical devices, cardiovascular pumping system, and more.