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Updated: Jun 5, 2026

A Microfluidic Model of Biomimetically Breathing Pulmonary Acinar Airways
Published on: May 9, 2016
Cilia-driven transport in confined ducts: an active porous media model
J P Raimondi1, Feng Ling1,2, Eva Kanso1,3
1Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA.
Abstract:
Ciliated organs transport viscous fluids through confined ducts, yet how duct morphology and ciliary activity jointly set the limits of flow rate and sustainable pressure remains unclear. Here, we model dense arrays of beating cilia lining duct walls as an active porous medium driven by prescribed metachronal waves, and identify two key morphological parameters that govern transport: the ciliary confinement ratio and the mean ciliary fraction. The resulting flows are described by the incompressible Navier-Stokes-Brinkman equations, which we solve numerically using a spectral method in the low-Reynolds-number regime. We also develop a complementary mean-field analytical model. The active porous medium framework provides an intermediate description between classical envelope theories and filament-resolved simulations and enables a systematic investigation of how fluid transport is shaped by confinement and packing of ciliary material. We find that transport is characterized by a decreasing linear relationship between flow rate and pressure generation, marking a fundamental trade-off between throughput and sustainable adverse pressure. These results provide a unified physical interpretation of the morphological diversity of ciliated ducts, from high-throughput ciliary carpets to pressure-generating ciliary flames, and offer guiding principles for the design of bio-inspired microfluidic pumps.
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