ieee transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control, vol. 53, no.

2, february 2006

463

Performance Evaluation of a Valveless

Micropump Driven by a Ring-Type

Piezoelectric Actuator

Tao Zhang, Member, IEEE, and Qing-Ming Wang, Member, IEEE

AbstractPresented in this paper is the study of the
performance evaluation of a valveless micropump driven by
a ring-type piezoelectric actuator. The application of this
micropump is to circulate fuel inside a miniaturized direct
methanol fuel cell (DMFC) power system. A theoretical
model based on the theory of plates and shells is estab
lished to estimate the deection and the volume change of
this micropump without liquid loading. Both nite-element
method (FEM) and experimental method are applied to
verify this model. Using this model, the optimal design pa
rameters such as the dimensions and the mechanical prop
erties of the micropump can be obtained. Furthermore, var
ious system parameters that will aect the performance of
the micropump system with liquid loading are identied
and analyzed experimentally. It is expected that this study
will provide some vital information for many micropump
applications such as fuel delivery in fuel cells, ink jet print
ers, and biouidics.

I. Introduction
he research on micropumps initially emerged at Stan
ford University in 1980 [1]. Since then micropumps
have received a lot of attention and have played an im
portant role in the development of microuidics systems.
The applications of micropumps include chemical analysis
systems, microdosage systems, ink jet printers, and other
microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) that require mi
croliquid handling. During the last several decades, vari
ous designs of micropumps made of dierent materials and
based on dierent pumping mechanisms have been pre
sented. An extensive review about dierent types of micro
pumps was presented recently [2]. Based on the pumping
principle, micropump also can be divided into two groups:
dynamic micropumps and displacement micropumps. Dis
placement micropumps can be further divided into re
ciprocating displacement, aperiodic displacement, and ro
tary displacement micropumps. Of all the micropumps,
reciprocating displacement micropumps that use movable
boundary to push the working uid periodically attract
the most research attention. In these micropumps, the
movable boundary is often a deformable platethe pump
diaphragmwith xed edges. The pump diaphragm can
be made of silicon, glass, plastic, and metal. Besides the
pump diaphragm, other basic components include a pump

Manuscript received March 23, 2005; accepted August 16, 2005.

The authors are with the Department of Mechanical Engi
neering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261 (e-mail:
qmwang@engr.pitt.edu).

chamber, an actuator mechanism or driver, and ow di

recting elements (valves, nozzle/diuser, etc.). In opera
tion, the actuator drives the pump diaphragm to increase
and decrease the volume of the pump chamber periodi
cally. When the pump chamber is in expansion, the uid is
drawn in. When the pump chamber is in contraction, the
uid is forced out. The ow-directing elements are care
fully designed and regulated so that a net ow from inlet
to outlet can be obtained during one circle of expansion
and contraction. The micropump presented in this paper
essentially accords with this description.
The ow-directing elements are very important for the
micropump operation, and several dierent designs have
been presented. In earlier research, passive check valves
were often used [3]. To eliminate the wear and fatigue of
valves and reduce clogging, some researchers have started
to develop valveless designs. The rst piezoelectric valve
less micropump was introduced in 1993 by Stemme and
Stemme [4]. Nozzle/diuse elements were used to rectify
the ow direction in the pump design. The opening an
gles of these nozzle/diuser elements were small, normally
less than 20 , and the diuser direction was the positive
ow direction. The diameter of the pump chamber was
19 mm, and the pumping frequency was of the order of
100 Hz. Using water as working uid, the maximum ow
rate was 16 ml/minute and the maximum pressure head
was 2 mH2 O . Olsson et al. [5] continued the research on
this micropump. They presented a new design with two
pump chambers connected in parallel in 1995 [5] and later
fabricated it on silicon [6], [7]. The performance of dier
ent nozzle/diuser elements also was investigated [8]. A
lumped-mass model for this pump was established using
MATLAB (The Mathworks, Natick, MA) [9] and a CFD
model using ANSYS/Flotran (ANSYS, Inc., Canonsburg,
PA) was applied to analyze the ow directing ability of
nozzle/diuser elements [10]. All of these works have been
summarized in [11].
A dierent type of nozzle/diuser elements fabricated
in silicon using anisotropic wet etching was presented in
1995 [12], [13]. The opening angle of this later design was
70.5, and the positive ow direction was in the converging
wall direction. The pump diaphragm consisted of a Pyrex
glass foil (Corning, Inc., Corning, NY) with a thickness
of 120 m, and a piezoelectric PZT disk actuator with
a thickness of 200 m. The pump housing and the noz
zle/diuser elements were fabricated on a silicon wafer. A
prototype with 7 7 mm pump diaphragm reached ow

c 2006 IEEE
08853010/$20.00

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ieee transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control, vol. 53, no. 2, february 2006

Fig. 2. Schematic of the piezoelectric ring-type bending actuator.

Fig. 1. Schematic of the miniaturized DMFC power system using
piezoelectric valveless micropump for fuel delivery.

rates of 400 l/minute for water at an excitation frequency

between 1 kHz and 10 kHz.
In addition to nozzle/diuser elements, another ow
directing element called a valvular conduit also was used
in micropumps; and it was reported that this design had
higher volumetric eciency than nozzle/diuser elements
[14]. A linearized dynamic system model was established to
help improve the original design, and a dramatic improve
ment was obtained [15]. Morris and Forster also used the
FEM to nd the optimal geometric and material parame
ters for the circular piezoelectric micropump actuator [16].
A considerable amount of experimental and modeling
research has been focused on the valveless micropump [17]
[25]. All this research has provided very useful insights
about the design and operation of valveless micropumps.
However, due to the complicated phenomena involved with
the vibration of pump actuator and the ow of working liq
uid, detailed studies are ongoing. It is expected that im
proved design and new applications will open many tech
nological opportunities for micropumps, especially those
based on piezoelectric actuation mechanism.

II. Background
The micropump presented in this paper was originally
designed to supply methanol fuel for a compact direct
methanol fuel cell (DMFC) power system. The cross sec
tion of the DMFC power system incorporated with a piezo
electric micropump is shown schematically in Fig. 1. Note
that the gure is not drawn in actual scale. This system
mainly consists of the following parts: fuel cell membrane
electrode assembly (MEA), fuel chamber, nozzle/diuser,
micropump and pump chamber, and fuel supply manifold.
All these parts are fabricated in a multilayer structure
to obtain a compact system. The fuel cell MEA is made
of a Naon 117 (DuPont, Wilmington, DE) membrane
layer sandwiched by two electrode layers with catalysts
deposited on them. And the micropump is fabricated by
adhering a thin piezoelectric ring on a metal diaphragm.
When applying an alternating voltage to the piezoelectric
ring, the diaphragm is actuated to produce bending defor
mation that causes the volume change of the pump cham
ber. By selecting appropriate shape and dimension of the
nozzle/diuser between pump chamber and fuel chamber,

the fuel can circulate in the desired direction. And the

fuel supply from the right chamber can compensate the
fuel consumption. According to the previous analysis [26],
for a 1 W fuel cell assembly with an active electrochemi
cal reaction area of 25 cm2 (5 cm 5 cm), the least fuel
ow rate required is about 0.31 ml/minute if using a 1 M
methanol water solution as fuel. Many research issues for
this system exist, and the focus of this paper is the micro
pump part. The results that will be discussed later also
can be applied to other systems with such a micropump.

III. Analytical Discussion

The key element of the valveless micropump is actually
a ring-type piezoelectric bending mode actuator, which, as
shown in Fig. 2, consists of three layers: PZT ring, bonding
layer, and passive plate. A theoretical model can be estab
lished to estimate the deection of this actuator caused
by either applying an electric eld across the PZT ring
or applying a mechanical pressure onto the diaphragm.
The schematic of the cross section of this pump actuator
is shown in Fig. 3. Because the whole pump actuator is
bonded to the substrate, it is assumed that the boundary
is xed. However, in real applications the bonding process
is not perfect, and the actual boundary should be between
the xed edge boundary and the simply supported bound
ary.
Based on the theory of plates and shells, an analytical
model has been developed to determine the deection of
a disk-type piezoelectric bending mode actuator for the
micropump [25]. According to this model, the distribution
of the deection along the radius direction can be obtained:
w1 (r) =
[(
(
)]
)(
)
a
M0 b2 a2 a2 r2 + a2 a2 2b2 ln b2
b
{ [
]
},
2 Dp (1 + vp ) a2 + (1 vp ) b2 + De (1 + ve ) (b2 a2 )
(0 r a).
w2 (r) =

(1)

4
b2
b
{
},
2 Dp [(1 + vp ) a2 + (1 vp ) b2 ] + De (1 + ve ) (b2 a2 )
M0 a2 r2 2b2 ln

(a r b).

(2)

zhang and wang: valveless micropump and ring-type piezoelectric actuator

465

Fig. 3. Cross section of the piezoelectric ring-type bending actuator

with clamped outer edge.

Fig. 5. Photo of the piezoelectric valveless micropump prototype.

Fig. 4. Comparison of the diaphragm deections under 100 V and

1 kPa separately.

Here, M0 is the moment caused by actuation of the PZT

and can be calculated using the following equation:
M 0 = De

h 2
+
2 h

d31 U/hpzt
.
1
1
+
(Dpzt + Dp ) (3)
Epzt hpzt Ep hp

In (1), (2), (3), a and b represent the radius of the PZT

disk and the passive plate, respectively. Dp , vp , Ep , and
hp are the exural modulus, Poissons ratio, Youngs mod
ulus, and thickness of the passive plate. De , ve , and h are
the equivalent exural modulus, the equivalent Poissons
ratio, and the total thickness of the two-layer structure.
Dpzt , Epzt , hpzt , and d31 are the exural modulus, Youngs
modulus, thickness, and piezoelectric charge coecient of
the PZT. U is the static voltage applied on the PZT.
It should be noted that the actuation of a bimorph actu
ator can cause both extension and bending. For a bimorph
beam, if the length of the PZT layer is much larger than
its thickness, the extension is relatively small and can be
neglected [27]. In the general cases of bending actuators,
the thickness of the PZT is always much smaller than its
length or radius; therefore, the extension is neglected. In
the model presented above and the following theoretical

analysis, the coupling to extension is not considered. An

other simplication is to neglect the bonding layer eects
on the actuator performance. In a similar research on the
circular PZT actuator [24], it is found that increasing the
bonding will reduce the deection, but this eect is not
signicant when the PZT/passive layer thickness ratio is
beyond 0.4. Furthermore, as for the ring-type actuator pre
sented in this paper, the bonding layer thickness is very
small. Therefore, it is reasonable to adopt this simplica
tion.
Generally, to derive an exact analytical solution for the
bending deection of the micropump diaphragm driven by
a bonded ring-type piezoelectric actuator when a voltage
is applied, the governing equations need to be established
and solved for three sections: the inner passive section,
the middle three-layer actuator section (PZT layer, bond
ing layer, and passive layer), and the outer passive sec
tion. Then the unknown parameters in the equations are
determined by boundary conditions and continuity condi
tions. Thus, the derivation can be a quite complex pro
cess; for such complicated problems, numerical methods
often are used to obtain the results. Here for simplicity,
some assumptions are made so that an approximate an
alytical model can be established based on the model of
the disk-type bending actuator that is introduced above.
Assuming the whole system is linear and a thin ring-type
piezoelectric actuator is used, the bending deection of the
actuation membrane can be obtained approximately by
subtracting the deection of a smaller disk-type bending
actuator from that of a larger disk-type bending actuator,
taking the inner radius of the PZT ring as the radius of
the smaller PZT disk and the outer radius of the PZT ring
as the radius of the larger PZT disk. Therefore, the equa
tions for the ring-type bending actuator are (4)(6) (see
next page) where M0 is determined by (3), Ri and Ro are
the inner and outer radius of the PZT ring, and Rp is the
radius of the passive plate. The meanings of other param
eters are the same as those introduced in the equations for
the disk-type bending actuator.

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ieee transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control, vol. 53, no. 2, february 2006

(
)(
)
Ro

M0 Rp2 Ro2 Ro2 r2 + Ro2 Ro2 2Rp2 ln

Rp2

Rp
]
(
)}
w1 (r) = { [
2 Dp (1 + vp ) Ro2 + (1 vp ) Rp2 + De (1 + ve ) Rp2 Ro2
(
)(
)
Ri
Rp2
M0 Rp2 Ri2 Ri2 r2 + Ri2 Ri2 2Rp2 ln
Rp
]
(
)} ,

{ [
2 Dp (1 + vp ) Ri2 + (1 vp ) Rp2 + De (1 + ve ) Rp2 Ri2

(4)

(0 r Ri ).
)
(
)(
Ro

M0 Rp2 Ro2 Ro2 r2 + Ro2 Ro2 2Rp2 ln

Rp2

Rp

]
(
)}
w2 (r) = { [
2 Dp (1 + vp ) Ro2 + (1 vp ) Rp2 + De (1 + ve ) Rp2 Ro2
r
Rp2
M0 Ri2 r2 2Rp2 ln
Rp
]
(
)} ,

{ [
2 Dp (1 + vp ) Ri2 + (1 vp ) Rp2 + De (1 + ve ) Rp2 Ri2

(5)

(Ri r Ra ) .
r
M0 Ro2 r2 2Rp2
Rp2
Rp
]
(
)}

w3 (r) = { [
2 Dp (1 + vp ) Ro2 + (1 vp ) Rp2 + De (1 + ve ) Rp2 Ro2

r
Rp2
M0 Ri2 r2 2Rp2 ln
Rp
]
(
)} ,

{ [
2 Dp (1 + vp ) Ri2 + (1 vp ) Rp2 + De (1 + ve ) Rp2 Ri2

(6)

(Ro r Rp ) ,

Also based on the theory of plates and shells, the de

ection induced by mechanical pressure also can be deter
mined by using the superposition method. Combining the
established equations from [28] together, the deections
caused by pressure for the three dierent sections are:
)
(
p Ri2 r2
5 + vp 2
w4 (r) = w5 (Ri ) +
R r2
64Dp
1 + vp i
( 2
)
M1
+
Ri r2 ,
2Dp (1 + vp )

(Ri r Ro ) .

)2
p ( 2
Rp r2
64Dp

r
Rp2
(M '' M2 ) Ro2 r2 2Rp2 log
Rp
[
]
+
, (9)
2Dp (1 vp ) Rp2 + (1 + vp ) Ro2
(Ro r Rp ) ,

(7)

(0 r Ri ) .

(
)
p Ro2 r2
5 + ve 2
w5 (r) = w6 (Ro ) +
R r2
64De
1 + ve o
[ 2
](
)
Ro M2 Ri2 (M1 M ' ) Ro2 r2
+
2 (1 + ve ) De (Ro2 Ri2 )
r
Ro2 Ri2 (M2 M1 + M ' ) log
Ro

,
(1 ve ) De (Ro2 Ri2 )

w6 (r) =

(8)

where p is the mechanical pressure exerted onto the pump

diaphragm. M ' and M '' are two intermediate bending mo
ments, of which:
(
)
p
M' =
(3 + ve ) Ro2 Ri2 ,
(10)
16
[
]
p
M '' =
R2 (1 + vp ) Ro2 (3 + vp ) .
(11)
16 p
The other two intermediate bending moments, M1 and
M2 , can be obtained by solving the continuity equations
listed below:

dw4 (r)
dw5 (r)

dr r=Ri
dr r=Ri
.
(12)

dw
(r)
dw
(r)

5
6

=
dr
dr r=Ro
r=Ro
Note that the continuity of the deection is already sat
ised in (7), (8), and (9).

zhang and wang: valveless micropump and ring-type piezoelectric actuator

467

TABLE I
Dimensions and Material Properties of Micropump Prototype.

Parameters

Piezoelectric disk
(PZT-5H)1

Bonding layer
(conductive epoxy)2

Passive plate
(stainless steel)

Inner diameter (mm)

Outer diameter (mm)
Thickness (mm)
Youngs modulus (Pa)
Poissons ratio
d31 (m/V)
T
33 (F/m)

6.3
19.11
0.32
6.2 1010
0.31
3.2 1010
2.856 108

6.3
19.11
0.056
5.17 109
0.3

25.4
0.254
1.95 1011
0.3

1 The
2 The

properties data are taken from the data sheet of CTS 3203HD.
properties data are taken from [24].

If the pressure dierence exerted on the pump actua

tor is only in the range of several kilopascals, the deec
tion caused by the pressure dierence will be very small.
Fig. 4 shows the comparison between the deection under
100 V of applied voltage and the deection under 1 kPa of
pressure dierence for the ring-type bending actuator. The
dimensions and material properties of the pump actuator
used for this calculation are listed in Table I. Under such
circumstance, the eect of the pressure dierence on the
volume change can be neglected and an analytical solution
can be obtained for the ow rate.
After the deection of the pump actuator is determined,
the following equation can be used to calculate the total
volume change of the pump chamber:
Rp

V = 2

w(r)rdr.

(13)

Fig. 6. Comparison of the diaphragm deections obtained by dierent

methods (U = 100 V).

Note here:

w1 (r),
w(r) = w2 (r),

w3 (r),

0 r Ri ;
Ri r Ro ;
Ro r Rp .

(14)

Substituting the deection equations into it, the rela

tionship between the volume change and the actuation
voltage can be obtained. It can be shown that the volume
change is proportional to the actuation voltage, which can
be expressed as:
V = kU U.

(15)

The proportional coecient depends on the dimension

and the material properties of the pump actuator. The
equation to calculate this coecient is not listed here due
to its complexity. But it can be obtained simply by calcu
lating the volume change caused by 1 V of applied voltage.
When the voltage applied across the PZT layer is xed, a
larger kU results in a larger volume change. So it can be
used as a gure-of-merit in evaluation of the piezoelectric
pump performance.
To obtain a continuous ow, an alternating voltage has
to be applied to the pump-bending actuator. If the driving
frequency is far lower than the resonance frequency of the
pump actuator, U can be substituted by Um sin(t) in the

equations derived previously. Um is the amplitude of the

sinusoidal voltage applied on the piezoelectric plate, and
is the angular frequency.
To estimate the net ow rate of the pump, the model
ing of the nozzle/diuser also is necessary. As mentioned
before, these nozzle/diuser elements can direct ow from
inlet to outlet. They are geometrically designed to have a
lower pressure loss in one direction than in the opposite
direction for the same ow velocity. The characteristic of
the nozzle/diuser element can be described as follows:
p =

1 2
v ,
2

(16)

where p is the pressure loss through the nozzle/diuser

element, is the density of the uid, v is the velocity of
the uid, and is the pressure loss coecient. It also can
be expressed in the form of ow rate Q:

Q = C p,
(17)
where C is called conductivity coecient. Two dierent
ow directions correspond to two dierent C values. One
is higher than the other. The conductivity coecient in a
positive direction is represented by CH , and the conduc
tivity coecient in a negative direction is represented by

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ieee transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control, vol. 53, no. 2, february 2006

Fig. 7. Relationship between the proportional coecient kU and the

passive plate Youngs modulus Ep .

CL . Accordingly, there also are two dierent values: the

pressure loss coecient in positive direction is represented
by positive and the pressure loss coecient in negative
direction is represented by negative .
As mentioned before, it is assumed that the eect of the
pressure dierence on the volume change is negligible, and
thus only the volume change induced by applied voltage
is considered. Also assume that the pressures outside the
inlet and outlet are all equal to the atmospheric pressure.
Given these assumptions, the equations from [21] can be
used to obtain the analytical solutions for the ow rate.
The average net ow rate then is given by:
Q=

kU Um CH CL
kU Um
=

CH + CL

1
2

1
2

+1

,
(18)

where:
=

negative
=
positive

CH
CL

For the miniaturized DMFC power system using a

micropump, the power to drive the micropump comes from
the total power generated by the fuel cell system itself.
Therefore, it is very important to estimate how much en
ergy the micropump needs to consume. Electrically the
bending-piezoelectric actuator behaves like a planar capac
itor. The electric capacitance under the given mechanical
boundary condition is very complicated. In a similar case
[29], the capacitance of a circular disk-type PZT actuator
with clamped edges has been given by:

Fig. 8. Coecient kU (solid curves from top to bottom: Ri /Ro = 0.1,

2 /C (dashed curves from top to bottom:
0.2, 0.3, and 0.4) and kU
0
Ri /Ro = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4) at dierent PZT/passive plate radius
ratio.

where T33 is the permittivity of the PZT disk, sE

11 is the
elastic compliance of the PZT disk at constant electric
eld, sp is the elastic compliance of the passive layer, K31
is the electromechanical coupling coecient of the PZT
disk, and v is the Poissons ratio. In [29] it is assumed that
the Poissons ratio of the PZT disk is the same as that of
the passive plate, and the eect of the bonding layer on
the capacitance is neglected. The equations for the other
two parameters are: Sh = hpzt sp + hp sE
11 , and:
E
E
B31 = h4pzt s2p + 4s11
sp hp h3pzt + 6s11
sp h2p h2pzt

( E )2
E
+ 4s11
sp h3p hpzt + h4p s11
.

The term outside the parenthesis of (19) is actually

the capacitance of piezoelectric layer with free boundary
condition. It is found that the capacitance with clamped
boundary condition is about 10 to 30% less than the capac
itance with free-boundary condition. Although the bound
ary condition of the pump actuator in this study is not
exactly the same as that of [29], the results of two cases
should be close. For approximation the capacitance with
free-boundary condition is used here because the resultant
estimation of the pump power consumption will be larger,
which should be safer for the system design. The capaci
tance with free-boundary condition is described as:
P ermittivity Area
.
T hickness
For the ring-type bending actuator:
(
)
T
33
Ro2 Ri2
C0 =
.
hpzt
C0 =

(20)

(21)

Suppose the applied voltage is sinusoidal, that is:

T a2
2
Ce = 33
1
1
hpzt
1v
( )2
2
3 sE
sp h2p hpzt (hp + hpzt )
11
2
K31
,
Sh B31

U (t) = Um sin(t).

(22)

The current then is:

(19)

i(t) = C0

dU (t)
.
dt

(23)

zhang and wang: valveless micropump and ring-type piezoelectric actuator

469

2 /C at dierent PZT layer thickness.

Fig. 10. Coecient kU and kU
0
2 /C at dierent passive plate radius
Fig. 9. Coecient kU and kU
0
with xed PZT/passive plate radius ratio.

So the instantaneous power consumption is given by:

1
2
C0 Um
sin(2t).
(24)
2
It should be noted that, as a capacitor, the piezoelectric
actuator would store a large portion of the input electri
cal energy; therefore, only part of the input energy can be
converted into output mechanical energy for fuel delivery.
The stored energy will remain in the driving circuit and
will be used in the next driving cycle. For the worst case,
the maximum value of Welec is chosen to estimate the ef
ciency of the whole fuel cell system. Combining (18) and
(24) by eliminating Um , we have:
Welec = i(t)U (t) =

max Welec =

Co
2f
4kU

1/2 + 1
1/2 1

2
2

Q ,

(25)

where f is the frequency of the driving voltage.

As shown in (25), the maximum power consumption is
proportional to the capacitance, C0 , and the square of the
average net ow rate, Q. It also is inversely proportional to
the driving frequency, f , and the square of kU . The eect
of the nozzle/diuser element is represented by the coef
cient, . The larger this coecient is, the less the power
consumption is. Q and f are operational parameters. C0
and kU depend on the dimensions and material properties
2
of the pump actuator. In the following analysis, kU
/C0 is
considered as a gure-of-merit that can be used to evaluate
the performance of the micropump. The larger this param
eter is, the smaller the power consumed by the micropump
will be. For the miniaturized DMFC power system driven
by the micropump, it is also very important to keep this
micropump power consumption as small as possible while
delivering enough fuel ow rate for fuel cell reaction.

IV. Optimization of Design Parameters Based on

Theoretical Analysis
Both the passive layer and the active layer of the micro
pump can be made of various materials. Also the thickness

and the radius of each layer may be dierent. It is possible

to optimize the micropump design based on the theoreti
cal analysis. Two objectives can be used for optimization.
One is the average net ow rate. If the driving voltage
and its frequency are xed, based on (18), a larger kU is
preferred so that a larger ow rate can be obtained. The
other objective is the power consumption. It is shown in
(25) that given the driving frequency and the ow rate,
2
a larger kU
/C0 is preferred so that the power required to
drive the micropump is smaller. Both factors will be eval
uated in the following analysis.
It is necessary to verify the analytical solutions as many
assumptions and simplications have been made during
the derivation. Here both numerical and experimental re
sults are used to compare with the theoretical results for
the ring-type bending actuator. The numerical results are
obtained by using the commercial FEM package (ANSYS
6.1, ANSYS, Inc.) to calculate a wedge-shaped part of the
pump actuator with xing and symmetric boundary con
ditions. A three-dimensional (3-D) tetrahedral structural
solid element type, Solid-92 is chosen to model the pas
sive plate, and a 3-D tetrahedral coupled-eld solid ele
ment type, Solid-98 is chosen to model the PZT layer. The
bonding layer also is neglected. The total number of the
elements in this model is 2753. The experimental data are
measured from a ring-type bending actuator. The photo
of the micropump prototype driving by this actuator is
shown in Fig. 5. The material properties and dimensions
of this prototype are listed in Table I. The applied voltage
is 100 V.
The comparison of the deection data obtained by three
dierent methods is shown in Fig. 6. For both numerical
results and experimental results, the maximum deection
appears at the center of the pump actuator. Theoretical
results are closer to the experimental results; however, the
maximum deection does not appear at the center. This
probably means the linear approximation during the theo
retical derivation does not t well with the real case. Also
note that, due to the imperfect clamping at the outer edge
of the actuator diaphragm, the experimental results do not
converge to zero at the boundary. There are other possible

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increasing the radius of the passive plate will increase both

2
/C0 .
kU and kU
The eect of the thicknesses on the performance of the
pump actuator is depicted in Figs. 10 and 11. The optimal
2
thickness of the PZT ring exists for both kU and kU
/C0 .
Because a smaller PZT ring thickness leads to a larger
capacitance, the value of the optimal PZT ring thickness
2
for kU
/C0 (about 0.25 mm) is larger than the value of the
optimal thickness for kU (about 0.1 mm). By keeping the
thickness of the PZT ring xed, it also can be found that
the optimal PZT/passive plate thickness ratio exists for
2
both kU and kU
/C0 . Because the thickness of the passive
plate will not aect the capacitance, the values of both
optimal thickness ratios are the same and about 0.3 in
this case.
2 /C at dierent passive/PZT layer
Fig. 11. Coecient kU and kU
0
thickness ratio with xed PZT layer thickness.

V. Experimental Characterization
reasons that result in the discrepancy among the results
obtained by three dierent methods. As mentioned before,
the numerical model is using a 3-D structural solid element
so stresses and strains in other directions also are con
sidered. The theoretical model is based on pure bending
assumption, and linearization simplication is used. The
factors that may aect the experimental results are even
more complicated, including the fabrication defects, resid
ual stress, materials imperfection, etc. Still from Fig. 6 it
is shown that both numerical and theoretical methods can
provide fair estimations.
Based on the theoretical model, Figs. 711 are obtained
to illustrate the possible factors that can aect the perfor
mance of the micropump.
Fig. 7 shows how the material property of the passive
plate can aect the performance of the ring-type bending
actuator. Increasing the Youngs modulus of the passive
plate will reduce kU . Therefore, it is preferable to choose
a passive plate with smaller Youngs modulus so that a
larger ow rate can be obtained. In addition, because there
is no connection between the capacitance and the Youngs
2
modulus, the variation trend of kU
/C0 should be the same
as that of kU .
In Fig. 8, the solid curves represent kU (from top to bot
tom: Ri /Ro = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4) and the dot curves rep
2
resent kU
/C0 (from top to bottom: Ri /Ro = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3,
and 0.4). So it is obvious that increasing the inner/outer
radius ratio of the PZT ring will reduce both kU and
2
kU
/C0 . Increasing Ri will reduce the capacitance; however, it also will reduce the deection at the same time.
2
As a whole, kU
/C0 is decreasing when Ri is increasing.
Also an optimal PZT/passive plate radius ratio exists for
2
both kU and kU
/C0 . The optimal ratio for kU (about 0.8)
2
is larger than the optimal ratio for kU
/C0 (about 0.7) because a larger PZT ring radius results in a larger capac
itance. Keeping both the inner/outer radius ratio of the
PZT ring and the PZT/passive plate radius ratio xed,
2
the curves of both kU and kU
/C0 as a function of the
passive plate radius can be obtained. As shown in Fig. 9,

As mentioned earlier, a micropump prototype driving

by the ring-type bending actuator has been fabricated in
our lab. Not all of the design parameters of the prototype
are optimal due to the limitations of the experimental con
ditions and the available materials. To fabricate the thin
PZT ring, rst a PZT ring with a thickness of 0.8 mm is
cut from a thicker PZT ring using the dicing saw, then this
PZT ring is ground to the specic thickness. After that, the
top and bottom surfaces of the PZT ring are coated with
a thin gold electrode layer using a sputter-coater device.
The thin stainless steel disk is bought from McMaster-Carr
Supply Company, Elmhurst, IL. The PZT ring is bonded
onto the stainless steel disk using epoxy. Two very thin,
bare, copper wires are connected to the two electrodes of
this ring-type bonding actuator using conductive epoxy.
The pump housing is made of hard, transparent, plastic
material. By bonding the ring-type bending actuator onto
the pump housing with epoxy, the valveless piezoelectric
micropump is nally obtained. Fig. 12 shows the top and
cross section of the pump housing.
An MTI 2000 Fotonic Sensor (MTI Instruments, Inc.,
Albany, NY) is used to measure the deection of the pro
totype. As shown in Fig. 13, the relationship between the
center deection of the prototype (without liquid loading)
and the applied voltage is almost linear. This linear re
lationship also is predicted by the theoretical analysis, al
though a certain dierence exists between the values of the
experimental results and those of the theoretical results.
Basically, increasing the applied voltage will increase the
applied electrical eld; therefore, the deection and the
volume displacement will increase as well. However, the
applied electrical eld cannot exceed a certain limit or
the PZT material will be depolarized. This limit of the
PZT-5H used in our prototype is about 8 kV/cm and for a
PZT ring with a thickness of 0.3 mm the maximum applied
voltage should be about 240 V. Higher driving voltage also
means a larger power consumption. The comparison of the
deection distributions along the radius obtained by dif
ferent methods is already shown in Fig. 6. In general, all

zhang and wang: valveless micropump and ring-type piezoelectric actuator

471

Fig. 12. Design graph of the micropump housing.

Fig. 13. Measured center deection of the micropump diaphragm

under dierent applied voltage (without liquid loading).
Fig. 14. Frequency response of the micropump obtained by dierent
methods (without liquid loading).

the deection curves show the similar variation trend, and

the theoretical result is closer to the experimental result
quantitatively.
The other important factor that can inuence the per
formance of the pump is the driving frequency. For the
case without liquid loading, two methods are used to mea
sure the frequency response of the pump actuator. One
is to measure the center deection under dierent driving
frequency, and the other is to measure the impedance spec
troscopy of this actuator. For comparison, the numerical
results also are obtained by using the commercial FEM
package, ANSYS 6.1. As shown in Fig. 14, the rst reso
nant frequency appears at several kilohertz in which the
deection reaches the maximum value. Both resonant fre
quencies obtained by experimental methods are very close,
and the numerical one is much higher.

As shown in Fig. 15, for the case with water loading, the
relationship between the center deection and the applied
voltage is also linear. In this measurement, the applied
voltage is sinusoidal and the driving frequency is 200 Hz.
When applying a sinusoidal alternating current (AC) volt
age to the actuator, the measured deection signal is also
sinusoidal with the same frequency as the driving voltage.
And a phase shift is observed between the deection and
the applied voltage that may be partly attributed to the
hysteresis. In Fig. 15, only the amplitude of the deection
is shown. The frequency responses of the micropump with
water loading also are evaluated by both center deection
and impedance spectroscopy. From Fig. 16, it is found that
the results obtained by both methods are very close, and

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ieee transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control, vol. 53, no. 2, february 2006

Fig. 15. Measured center deection of the micropump diaphragm

under dierent applied voltage (with liquid loading).

Fig. 17. Measured ow rate versus pressure head (pumping uid is

water).

be estimated that the power consumption should be about

50 mW. This ow rate is adequate to support the operation
of a 1 W fuel cell assembly, and the power consumption of
the micropump occupies only a small portion of the total
power generated by the fuel cell [26]. In the actual oper
ation of the fuel cell integrated with micropump, a direct
current (DC)-AC conversion system is required to drive
the micropump. And it may be more convenient to use a
square wave AC instead of sine AC.
VI. Conclusions

Fig. 16. Frequency response of the micropump obtained by dierent

methods (with liquid loading).

the resonance frequency is about 200 Hz, which is far less

than the case without water loading.
To measure the water ow rate, two water containers
are connected to the inlet and outlet of the micropump
separately. By measuring the movement of the water sur
face in the containers with respect to time, the average
ow rate and the corresponding pressure head can be ob
tained. The results are shown in Fig. 17. The larger ow
rate corresponds to the lower pressure head. Using this
micropump, a ow rate of 5 ml/minute at 1 kPa can be
delivered when applying a 100 V voltage with a driving fre
quency of 200 Hz; and 200 Hz is the resonance frequency of
the micropump with water loading and the performance is
the best under this driving frequency. The maximum value
of the measured capacitance is about 8.22 nF, and it can

As a uid delivery method, a valveless micropump driv

ing by a ring-type, piezoelectric-bending actuator is de
veloped. A theoretical model is established to estimate
the deection, volume change, ow rate, and power con
sumption of the micropump. The validity of the theoreti
cal model is veried by both numerical and experimental
methods. An important use of this model is to optimize the
micropump design parameters, including material proper
ties and structure dimensions. It can be found that increas
ing the Youngs modulus of the PZT disk or decreasing the
Youngs modulus of the passive plate will be favorable for
both ow rate and power consumption. A larger diameter
PZT layer also is preferred. As for the thickness of the PZT
layer, PZT/passive plate thickness ratio and PZT/passive
plate radius ratio, optimal values exist. Furthermore, a
micropump prototype is fabricated and tested. A linear re
lationship can be observed between the deection and the
applied voltage for both the case without liquid loading
and the case with liquid loading. The resonant frequency
is in the range of several kilohertz without liquid loading
and is about 200 Hz with liquid loading. A ow rate of
5 ml/minute at 1 kPa can be reached when the pumping
uid is water. In the future, the designs with optimal pa
rameters will be fabricated so that the performance can be

zhang and wang: valveless micropump and ring-type piezoelectric actuator

improved. Also required is the modeling work to predict

the more complicated behavior of the micropump opera
tion with liquid loading.

[24]
[25]

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Tao Zhang (S97M99) is currently a post

doctoral fellow in the Department of Surgery
at the University of Maryland Baltimore,
Maryland. He received his B.S. and M.S. de
grees in Thermal Engineering from Tsinghua
University, Beijing, China, in 1997 and 2000,
respectively, and Ph.D. degree in Mechani
cal Engineering from the University of Pitts
burgh, Pennsylvania in 2005. Tao Zhangs
doctoral research is focused on miniaturized
polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel
cells and direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC)
for portable electronics application. His research interests include
miniaturized power devices, micro uidics, piezoelectric microsen
sor and microactuator, computational uid dynamics (CFD), and
biomedical devices. His recent research focuses on articial pump
lung devices, cardiac assist devices, functional Biosensors and cell
mechanics. He is a member of IEEE and American Society of Me
chanical Engineering (ASME).

Qing-Ming Wang (M00) is an assistant

professor in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering, the University of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. He received the B.S. and M.S.
degrees in Materials Science and Engineering
from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in
1987 and 1989, respectively, and the Ph.D. de
gree in Materials from the Pennsylvania State
University in 1998.
Prior to joining the University of Pitts
burgh, Dr. Wang was an R&D engineer and
materials scientist in Lexmark International,
Inc., Lexington, Kentucky, where he worked on piezoelectric and
electrostatic microactuators for inkjet printhead development. From
1990 to 1992, he worked as a development engineer in a technol
ogy company in Beijing where he participated in the research and
development of electronic materials and piezoelectric devices. From
1992 to 1994, he was a research assistant in the New Mexico Insti
tute of Mining and Technology working on nickel-zinc ferrite and
ferrite/polymer composites for EMI lter application. From 1994 to
1998, he was a graduate assistant in the Materials Research Labora
tory of the Pennsylvania State University working toward his Ph.D.
degree in the areas of piezoelectric ceramic actuators for low fre
quency active noise cancellation and vibration damping, and thin
lm materials for microactuator and microsensor applications.
Dr. Wangs primary research interests are in microelectromechan
ical systems (MEMS) and microfabrication; smart materials; and
piezoelectric/electrostrictive ceramics, thin lms, and composites for
electromechanical transducer, actuator, and sensor applications.
He is a member of IEEE, IEEE-UFFC, the Materials Research
Society (MRS), ASME, and the American Ceramic Society.