Basic Characteristics of a Liquid Crystal Pump

抄録

A flow visualization of a liquid crystal was conducted under the application of an electric field in a mini cylinder with electrode strips on the inner surface. Three-phase alternating currents were used as rotation electric fields to generate the rotational flow of the liquid crystal. A pump with a spiral flow channel was designed based on the rotational flow mechanism of the liquid crystal by using the three-phase alternating currents. The pressure-flow rate characteristics of the pump were measured and the characteristics for the length and the shape of the flow channel in the pump were investigated for various amplitudes of electric fields. The pressure increased when we used a liquid crystal with a high dielectric constant and a high kinematic viscosity for the constant voltage. Dimensional analysis was conducted to arrange the characteristics of the present pump simply and the non-dimensional flow rate and pressure were almost on one line. The size of our pump can be decreased by further research. This study contributes to the development of a micro-pump in micro-fabricated systems and our pump eliminates mechanical vibration and noise.