Development of a peristaltic micro pump system - conceptual design and optimization by simulation

This paper reports about the development of a piezoelectric driven micro pump using the peristaltic principle, which is inspired by the transportation system of the human oesophagus and intestinal system. The driving mechanism is an active elastic tube with an array of piezoelectric bending elements. The conceptual idea of this innovative driving system was developed by finite-element (FE) simulation. Based on simulation results demonstrating the feasibility, a team of project partners worked together in the technical realisation of this pump. A target application is an implantable infusion pump system for controllable, very small scale medical drug dosage. Meanwhile, a fully functional prototype of the peristaltic micro pump has been successfully tested and shows a flow rate of approximat ely 0.1 l per cycle at a driving voltage of 60 V. The current paper details on simulation based studies which accompanied the technical development of the pump. Virtual design variants of active and passive material combinations were optimised for maximum performance under the given specifications. Also, fluid dynamics simulation was used to investigate the fluidic properties of the pumping system. Comparison with component tests showed a very good agreement between analytical and numerical simulation and experimental results. (Details on the technical realisation, newly developed active material concepts, as well as bonding and cutting techniques are given in the complementary paper "Development of a Peristaltic Micro Pump System - Technical Realisation" in this conference.)