Peristaltic transport of a particle-fluid suspension

Peristaltic pumping by a sinusoidal traveling wave in the walls of a two-dimensional channel filled with a viscous incompressible fluid in which are distributed identical rigid spherical particles, is investigated theoretically. A perturbation solution is obtained which satisfies the momentum equations for the case in which amplitude ratio (wave amplitude/channel half width) is small. The results show that the fluid phase mean axial velocity decreases with increase in the particle concentration. The phenomenon of reflux (the mean flow reversal) is discussed. A reversal of velocity in the neighborhood of the centerline occurs when the pressure gradient is greater than that of the critical reflux condition. It is found that the critical reflux pressure is lower for the particle-fluid suspension than for the particle-free fluid. It is further observed that the mean flow reversal is strongly dependent on the particle concentration and the presence of particles in the fluid favors the reversal flow. A motivation of the present analysis has been the hope that such a theory of two-phase flow process is very useful in understanding the role of peristaltic muscular contraction in transporting bio-fluid behaving like a particle-fluid mixture. Also the theory is important to the engineering applications of pumping solid-fluid mixtures by peristalsis.