Studies on micropump/minipump using rotational motion of magnetic material balls

Experiments and numerical analyses have been performed on micropumps/minipumps using rotational motion of magnetic material balls. In the pumps, magnetic material balls and nonmagnetic materials balls rotate in a closed channel loop, and a part of the balls acts as a piston and the remaining part of the balls serves as a valve. Experiments have been carried out on two pumps, i.e. a smaller pump and a larger pump with channel cross-sections of ∼1 mm and ∼2 mm inner diameter, respectively. The maximum flow rate achieved and the maximum pump head obtained are ∼500 μl/min and ∼70 Pa, respectively, for the smaller pump, and ∼2000 μl/min and ∼150 Pa, respectively, for the larger pump. Numerical analyses have been performed by dividing the pumping loop into a piston channel and a valve channel. The numerical analyses overestimate the flow rate obtained in the experiments, except for the region of larger pump heads in the larger pump.