Birds manipulate airflow each time they flap their wings, pushing air in one direction and moving themselves in another. Two New York University researchers, Benjamin Thiria and Jun Zhang, have created a pump that moves fluid using vibration similar to a bird's motion. Their findings were published in the journal Applied Physics Letters.

Thiria and Zhang’s design uses two asymmetrically saw-toothed panels placed with their teeth facing each other. This creates a channeSqueezing and expanding a fluid repeatedly between two sawtooth-like boundaries generates a net flow to the right. Credit: AIP.orgl that can rapidly open and close. Water rushes into the channel when it expands and is forced out when the channel contracts.

"When a fluid is squeezed and expanded repeatedly, the asymmetric boundary forces the fluid to move in one direction," says Zhang. The repeated vibration of the channel drives fluid transport because the asymmetry of the ratchet’s teeth makes it easier for the fluid to move with them than against them.

The pump could be particularly useful in industrial situations where machinery is vibrating excessively and therefore operating inefficiently. The pump could capture some of the wasted mechanical energy and use it for a productive task, like circulating coolant. It also would dampen the noise that vibrating machinery tends to emit.

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