Geometric Mixing, Peristalsis, and the Geometric Phase of the Stomach

Mixing fluid in a container at low Reynolds number--in an inertialess environment--is not a trivial task. Reciprocating motions merely lead to cycles of mixing and unmixing, so continuous rotation, as used in many technological applications, would appear to be necessary. However, there is another so...

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Published inPloS one Vol. 10; no. 7; p. e0130735
Main Authors Arrieta, Jorge, Cartwright, Julyan H E, Gouillart, Emmanuelle, Piro, Nicolas, Piro, Oreste, Tuval, Idan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Public Library of Science 08.07.2015
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Animals
Computational fluid dynamics
Computer Simulation
Containers
Deformation
Fluid
Fluid flow
Fluid mechanics
Fluids
Formability
Gastric Juice - physiology
Humans
Journal bearings
Models, Anatomic
Models, Biological
NMR
Nonlinear Dynamics
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Peristalsis
Peristalsis - physiology
Physiology
Reynolds number
Stomach
Stomach - physiology
Studies
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Summary:Mixing fluid in a container at low Reynolds number--in an inertialess environment--is not a trivial task. Reciprocating motions merely lead to cycles of mixing and unmixing, so continuous rotation, as used in many technological applications, would appear to be necessary. However, there is another solution: movement of the walls in a cyclical fashion to introduce a geometric phase. We show using journal-bearing flow as a model that such geometric mixing is a general tool for using deformable boundaries that return to the same position to mix fluid at low Reynolds number. We then simulate a biological example: we show that mixing in the stomach functions because of the "belly phase," peristaltic movement of the walls in a cyclical fashion introduces a geometric phase that avoids unmixing.
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Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Conceived and designed the experiments: JA JC EG NP OP IT. Performed the experiments: JA JC NP IT. Analyzed the data: JA JC NP IT. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JA JC EG NP IT OP. Wrote the paper: JA JC NP IT OP.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0130735