Fully coupled modeling and design of a piezoelectric actuation based valveless micropump for drug delivery application

The precise control over the drug delivery involved in several vital applications including healthcare is required for achieving a therapeutic effect. For such precise control/manipulation of the drugs, micropumps are used. These micropumps are basically of two types viz. check valve-based and valveless micropumps. The valveless micropumps are preferable due to the congestion-free operation of diffuser/nozzle valves. In this paper, design optimization of a valveless piezo-electric actuation based micropump is carried out using COMSOL Multiphysics 5.0 by coupling two Multiphysics interface modules namely fluid–structure interaction and piezoelectric physics modules. Using simulation studies, the influence of pump design parameters including diffuser angle, diffuser length, neck width, chamber depth, chamber diameter and diaphragm thickness on net flow rate is studied. An optimal set of design parameters for the proposed micropump is identified. Further, the influence of actuation frequency on the flow rate is analysed. It is found that the proposed micropump is capable to deliver a net flow rate of 20 µl/min and a maximum back pressure attainable is 200 Pa.