Abstract
Transdermal drug delivery using needle free jet injections entails ejection of a liquid drug through a fine nozzle at elevated pressure, thus generating a narrow high-velocity fluid jet readily penetrable into skin and tissue. The idea of a simple and compact piezoelectric powered needle free injector (NFI) is introduced in this article, which offers electric control of injection volume in microliters. An impulse of up to 3500 N-s or more is generated by the multilayer piezoelectric actuator to drive the needle-free injector. The governing equations for the force and mass balance over the syringe plunger were derived to represent the driving mechanism for a compact needlefree injector. Furthermore, simulation was carried out to witness the effect of variation in parameters like impulse force, nozzle diameter and nozzle length on the injection dynamics, and the results prove the dependence of injection characteristics on aforementioned parameters, respectively. Finally, the specifications for fabrication of 10 μl volume delivering piezoelectric-impulse driven needle-free injector were obtained through analysis of multiple simulation results.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the research project support by the UST Young Scientist Research Project (YSRP) of University of Science and Technology (UST), South Korea (Grant No. GM4260).
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Mojiz Abbas Trimzi received the B.E. in chemical engineering from Dawood University of Science & Technology, Karachi, Pakistan, in 2014. In 2015, he joined Plant System & Machinery Major of University of Science and Technology (UST), Daejeon, South Korea, as integrative (M.S. leading to Ph.D.) course student. His research interests and activities as a researcher in Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials for Ph.D. include application of piezoelectric actuators in jet injectors, liquid jet dispensing heads, and displacement amplification mechanisms.
Young-Bog Ham received the M.E. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Kumoh National Institute of Technology, Gumi, Korea, in 1990 and 2003. He is currently a Principal Researcher of Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials and a Professor of University of Science & Technology, Daejeon, Korea. His recent research interests and activities have included liquid dispensing application of piezoelectric actuator, design of hydrostatic transmission and water fog spray for dust suppression.
Byeung-Cheol An received the B.E. in mechanical engineering from Kyungpook National University, Daegu, South Korea in 2015, then joined Plant System & Machinery Major of University of Science and Technology (UST), Daejeon, South Korea, as integrative (M.S. leading to Ph.D.) course student. His research interests and activities include digital textile printer head design using piezoelectric actuator and cryogenic reciprocating high pressure pump design.
Jung-Ho Park received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Chonnam National University (Korea) in 1993. He received M.S. and Ph.D. in precision machinery systems from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan) in 1996 and 1999, respectively. He is a Principal Researcher at Energy Systems Research Division of Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM). His research interests include design and driving mechanism of smart actuators & sensors, functional fluids and its applications.
So-Nam Yun is a Principal Researcher of KIMM (Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials) who received the M.E. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering all from Pukyeong National University, Busan, in 1990 and 1994. He has developed several valves with solenoid and piezo actuator. His research interests include smart actuator, valve for high-pressure hydrogen field and automatic control theory for component design.
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Trimzi, M.A., Ham, YB., An, BC. et al. Numerical analysis and simulation of an impulse driven piezoelectric needle-free jet injector. J Mech Sci Technol 33, 3851–3858 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-0728-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-0728-9