Study of Electrohydrodynamic Micropumping Through Conduction Phenomenon

Abstract

In the present paper, a single-stage axisymmetric conduction micropump in the vertical configuration has been proposed. This micropump consists of four components: high-voltage ring electrode, grounded disk-shaped electrode, insulator spacer, and inlet/outlet ports. The high-voltage electrode and grounded electrode of the device were patterned on the two separate commercial LCP substrates with 30 <formula formulatype="inline" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex Notation="TeX">$\mu\hbox{m}$ </tex></formula> copper cladding using standard lithographic techniques. The final spacing between two electrodes and the overall size of the device were measured to be 286 <formula formulatype="inline" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex Notation="TeX">$\mu\hbox{m}$</tex> </formula> and <formula formulatype="inline" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex Notation="TeX">$50\ \hbox{mm} \times 70\ \hbox{mm} \times 5\ \hbox{mm}$</tex> </formula> , respectively. The static pressure generation of the micropump was measured at different applied voltage using three different dielectric liquids, 10-GBN Nynas and Shell Diala AX transformer oils, and N-hexane. The range of applied voltages was between 300 and 1500 VDC, and maximum pressure generation up to 100 Pa was achieved at 1500 VDC applied voltage. To further verify the experimental results, a numerical simulation was also performed. The pressure head generation was predicted numerically and compared with experimental results at different applied voltages.