(665a) A Linear Peristaltic Device for Pumping and Mixing Liquids and Slurries

Mimicry of the bio-mechanical action of the soft walled human digestive tract could provide a viable method for the transportation and mixing of liquids or slurries, with potential application in situations where metallic components are not desirable, such as in the production and transport of propellant substances.

The gastrointestinal tract is nature’s biological slurry pump. The actions of the muscles within the tract wall produce peristaltic waves and segmented contraction activity that efficiently mix and transport digestion materials and products. A biomimetic physical model of the gastrointestinal tract has been developed that uses controlled hoop actuators (unit constrictors) to simulate the peristaltic contraction and expansion action of the muscles which mix or propel the material within a closed (stomach) or open ended (oesophagus or duodenum) gastric conduit respectively.

A prototype linear peristaltic device based, on our gastric model, performed well in an exploratory study of pumping performance for a Newtonian fluid (water), achieving flow rates up to 365 mL/min and pumping heads up to 5.3 meters. Work is in progress to investigate the effectiveness of the device for pumping and mixing viscous slurries.