Peristalsis

Peristalsis is the muscular contraction and relaxation of vessel walls which induces a

ow of the material inside through wave-like motion. Peristaltic motion appears in

many biological systems, including the human body. On one hand, it is an essential

mechanism (1) by which food is transported through the digestive tracts including

the small intestine, the esophagus and the stomach; (2) in the ow of blood through

the veins, the capillaries and the arteries; (3) in the transport of lymph in lymphatic

vessels; (4) and in urine transport from kidney to bladder through the ureter. On the

second hand, peristalsis play a signi_cant rule in gastric digestion and mixing within

a human body, by reproducing the mechanical forces and uid motions that promote

not only the breakdown and mixing of gastric content, but also its chemical digestion

and absorption.

In addition, this phenomenon has been exploited in many industrial applications

involving biomechanical and biomedical systems in the so-called roller pump. It is

used to move sanitary uid without contamination, transport noxious uid in the

nuclear industry and pump the blood in the heart-lung machine.

The research in this thesis is motivated by the aforementioned transport of material

in the stomach and intestines of humans, and the mixing of material in the human

stomach. Speci_cally, computational models are developed and employed to study

the

transport and mixing characteristics of peristaltic motion for di_erent Newtonian and

non-Newtonian uids under di_erent conditions. The peristaltic motion is simulated

by means of traveling waves which deform the walls of tubes of uniform or varying

diameter.