-title- Effect of contraction wave shape in the secondary lymphatic vessel on pumping performance -/title-

-abstract-



The lymphatic system plays an important role in interstitial fluid control of the body by transporting lymph and immune cells within a complex network of lymphatic valves and vessels. This system of valves and vessels allows unidirectional pumping without any centralized pump against an adverse pressure gradient, but many aspects of lymphatic pumping, especially the effect of contraction wave shape on intrinsic pumping remain understudied. The primary goal of present work is to investigate the effects on fluid pumping performance of contraction wave functions with different shapes using a fully coupled 3D fluid-structure interaction computational model. In particular, we probe the fluid pumping with a contraction wave function directly reduced from experimental data. Our results suggest that flow rate and pumping performance are strongly dependent on the contraction waveform of the vessel wall.

-/abstract-