With respect to a viscous micropump using a cylindrical rotor in a rectangular duct, influences of duct height on flow fields and pressure performances are investigated. The model experiment, the numerical simulation and the theoretical analysis are performed. In the model experiment, the low Reynolds number flow is realized by using glycerin as a working fluid for a centimeter-scale (not micrometer scale) pump model. In the numerical simulation, the commercial software, STAR-CD, is used.

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... ative and quantitative agreements between experimental and numerical results are obtained with respect to the flow fields and the performances. With an increase of duct height, the pressure rise at zero flow rate decreases and the flow rate at zero pressure rise increases. In the theoretical analysis, the two-dimensional lubrication theory and three dimensional duct loss are used. The new dimensionless numbers are obtained for flow rate and pressure rise. Theoretical performances show qualitative and quantitative agreements for flow rate and pressure rise. Theoretical performances show qualitative and quantitative agreements with the experimental and numerical ones.