Technical Papers and Presentations

Peristaltic pumping is an inherently nonlinear multiphysics problem where the deformation of the tube and the pumped fluid are strongly coupled. We used COMSOL Multiphysics to investigate the performance of a 180 degree rotary peristaltic pump with two metallic rollers, and an elastomeric tube pumping a viscous Newtonian fluid.

The model captures the peristaltic flow, the flow fluctuations that result when the rollers engage and disengage the tube, and the contact interaction between the rollers and the tube. We are using the model to investigate the effect of pump design variations such as tube occlusion, tube diameter, and roller speed, on the flow rate, flow fluctuations, and stress state in the tube.