Performance Characteristics of Shrouded Rayleigh-Step and Spiral Groove Viscous Pumps

In this paper the optimum geometrical configurations of a shrouded Rayleigh-step and a spiral groove viscous pump are analyzed. Then their performance characteristics are compared. The geometries and film shapes of these viscous pumps are optimized with respect to flow rate and the design parameters are summarized graphically. The flow rate of the optimized spiral groove viscous pump is approximately 5-10 percent greater than that of the optimized shrouded Rayleigh-step viscous pump