On the Performance of a Miniature Rotary Shaft Pump (RSP)

This paper presents a new concept of designing and manufacturing of a micro rotary shaft pump (RSP). An impeller made by boring a hole in one end of the shaft and cutting slots in the side of the shaft at the bottom of the bored hole, such that the metal between the slots de-fines the impeller blades, is the key component of this micro pump. The impeller’s diameter measured 2.5 mm, with the volute width of 0.4 mm. The micro pump has been made of AISI 304, offering good biocompatibility and chemical resistance. Two impeller designs were tested over a range of operating conditions. Pump performance characteristics, including pressure rise up to 2.5 kPa, and flow rate up to 60 ml/min are pre-sented for several different pump speed. Furthermore, 3_D numerical simulations were performed to model the micropumps. Focus of the simulations was to study the blade height effects, and the volute influence.