Tailoring Volume Dispersion in Fluidic Excitable Systems

A network of elastic fluidic tubes that exhibit a non-monotonic differential conductance can exhibit excitatory behavior for a broad range of material parameters [1,2]. In the absence of any time dependence in the pressure input and output the system dynamics emerges spontaneously in the form of self-sustained waves, which travel through the tubes. These volume and pressure pulses result in areas of the fluidic network having a transient higher volume than the baseline volume. In this work we explore how, by tuning the material parameters such as the non-linearity of the fluidic resistor and the elasticity of the tube wall we can tailor how the local volume accumulation is dispersed in the system. A biological fluidic system endowed with non-linearities in the fluidic conductance (such as our own vasculature) could harness such mechanisms to facilitate hemodynamic control. [1] M Ruiz-Garcia, E Katifori, arXiv:2003.10003 [2] M Ruiz-Garcia, E Katifori, arXiv:2001.01811