Comparative influences of fluid and shell on modeled ejection performance of a piezoelectric micro-jet

The piezoelectric micro-jet, which can achieve the drop-on-demand requirement, is based on ink-jet technology and small droplets can be ejected out by precise control. The droplets are driven out of the nozzle by the acoustic pressure waves which are generated by the piezoelectric vibrator. The propagation processes of the acoustic pressure waves are affected by the acoustic properties of the fluid and the shell material of the micro-jet, as well as the excitations and the structure sizes. The influences of the fluid density and acoustic velocity in the fluid on the nozzle pressure and support reaction force of the vibrator are analyzed in this paper. The effects of the shell material on the ejection performance are studied as well. In order to improve the ejection performance of the micro-jet, for ejecting a given fluid, the recommended methods of selecting the shell material and adjusting excitations are provided based on the results, and the influences of the factors on working frequencies are obtained as well.