Flow pumping system for physiological waveforms
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Updated: Jun 17, 2026

In Vitro Model of Physiological and Pathological Blood Flow with Application to Investigations of Vascular Cell Remodeling
Published on: November 3, 2015
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. wtsai@berkeley.edu
Abstract:
A pulsatile flow pumping system is developed to replicate flow waveforms with reasonable accuracy for experiments simulating physiological blood flows at numerous points in the body. The system divides the task of flow waveform generation between two pumps: a gear pump generates the mean component and a piston pump generates the oscillatory component. The system is driven by two programmable servo controllers. The frequency response of the system is used to characterize its operation. The system has been successfully tested in vascular flow experiments where sinusoidal, carotid, and coronary flow waveforms are replicated.
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