Meeting Abstract
Valveless, tubular pumps are widespread in the animal kingdom. For example, insect hearts are typically long narrow tubes that drive blood using a peristaltic-like waves. In this study, we use the immersed boundary method to simulate flow in a tube using a sinusoidal wave form. Simulations are performed in both two- and three-dimensions using parameters within the range of those observed for insects such as beetles, flies, mosquitoes, and moths. We quantify the relationships between fluid flow, compression frequency, compression wave speed, and tube occlusion in long narrow heart tubes typical of insects.Our results show that fluid flow speeds produced by peristalsis are greater than the speeds of the compression wave if the occlusion is sufficiently high; fluid flow is pulsatile; flow direction may temporarily reverse even when contractions are unidirectional; and flow speed has a nonlinear relationship with compression frequency when compression wave speed is held constant.
