Abstract Microscale pumping flow models are important in many industrial and physiological channels related to transport phenomena and engineering applications. A simple example behind the motivation is the rhythmic compression and expansion of channel walls. The membrane pumping mechanism significantly changes flow behavior, which can be used as an artificial pumping mechanism for the movement of biofluid within physiological channels. Motivated by the rhythmic compression and expansion of biological vessels, this study investigates the transition from membrane-driven pumping to peristalsis driven pumping in a microchannel through a unified mathematical wall equation. An incompressible Newtonian viscous fluid flow is analyzed under the influence of transient membrane deformation by incorporating phase lag to capture non-propagative, propagative, and wave-like peristaltic contraction within a unified framework. The fundamental equations for conservation of mass and momentum are considered, and further solved using the lubrication approach along with the low Reynolds number approximation. This study examines the effects of different types of pumping mechanisms including propagative, non-propagative, and wave-like peristalsis contraction on the pressure distribution, velocity distribution, volumetric flow rate, wall shear stress, and streamlines. MATLAB is used to simulate and generate graphical representations. The results reveal that the fluid flow driven by propagative contraction is more as compared to the other pumping mechanisms i.e., non-propagative and peristaltic contraction. The variations in pressure and wall shear stress occur at the contraction region due to the deformation of the membranes. These results provide useful insights into membrane-driven pumping mechanisms in physiological and bio-inspired microfluidic channels.
Mandal et al. (Mon,) studied this question.