This paper employs the integral-averaged method of thickness to approximate the periodical flows in a piezoelectric micropump, with a shallow water equation including nonlinearity and viscous damp presented to characterize the flows in micropump. The finite element method is used to obtain a matrix equation of fluid pressure. The fluid pressure equation is combined with the vibration equation of a silicon diaphragm to construct a liquid-solid coupled equation for reflecting the interaction between solid diaphragm and fluid motion in a micropump. Numerical results of a mode analysis of the coupled system indicate that the natural frequencies of the coupled system are much lower than those of the non-coupled system. The influence of additional mass and viscous damp of fluid on the natural frequencies of the coupled system is more significant as the pump thickness is small. It is found that the vibration shape functions of silicon diaphragm of the coupled system are almost the same as those of the non-coupled system. This paper also gives the first-order amplitude-frequency relationship of the silicon diaphragm, which is necessary for the flow-rate-frequency analysis of a micropump.
Poisson-Boltzmann equation for EDL (electric double layer) and Navier- Stokes equation for liquid flows were numerically solved to investigate resistance effect of electric double layer on liquid flow in microchannel. The dimension analysis indicates that the resistance effect of electric double layer can be estimated by an electric resistance number, which is proportional to the square of the liquid dielectric constant and the solid surface zeta potential, and inverse-proportional to the liquid dynamic viscosity, electric conductivity and the square of the channel width. An "electric current density balancing" (ECDB) condition was proposed to evaluate the flow-induced streaming potential, instead of conventional "electric current balancing" (ECB) condition which may induce spurious local backflow in neighborhood of the solid wall of the microchannel. The numerical results of the flow rate loss ratio and velocity profile are also given to demonstrate the resistance effect of electric double layer in microchannel.