Fluid structure interactions

Bioinspired devices for flow control

Controlling fluid flow is a difficult, yet important, task with applications ranging from biomedicine across food processing to infrastructure. State-of-the-art technology relies on a combination of electromechanical valves, pumps, and sensors controlled by a centralized computational unit. These allow for highly sophisticated spatiotemporal management of flow rate and direction. However, they are expensive to produce and maintain.

By replacing electromechanical actuators with flexible elements, our device exploits plant-inspired fluid-structure interactions to control flow. This permits high degrees of fluid flow control in a passive system, and obviates the need for sensors, actuators, and feedback loops. Moreover, these devices are relatively inexpensive.

Our devices can be applied to, for example, peristaltic pumps, a technology where rollers compress a tube as they rotate, thus pushing the liquid through the tube. This inexpensive and reliable pumping technology is widely used across a myriad of scientific disciplines. A significant pain of peristaltic pumps, however, is the pulsating output flow. Inspired by plants, we have developed a new way of removing the ripples; see (Biviano et al., 2022).

** Publications ** (Paludan et al., 2026) (Zwieniecki et al., 2026) (Paludan et al., 2024) (Martínez-Calvo et al., 2024) (Paludan et al., 2023) (Bork et al., 2023) (Jensen & Christensen, 2023) (Biviano et al., 2022) (Park et al., 2021) (Louf et al., 2020) (Christensen & Jensen, 2020) (Song et al., 2019) (Park et al., 2019) (Park et al., 2018)

2026

  1. Low-Reynolds-number fluid-structure interactions in a check valve
    Magnus V. Paludan, Keunhwan Park, Emil Visby, and Kaare H. Jensen
    Applied Physics Letters, 2026
    DOI HTML
  2. Torus-margo pits cannot function in vessel-bearing angiosperms
    Maciej A. Zwieniecki, Aude Tixier, Jessica Orozco, Keunhwan Park, Anneline H. Christensen, Sif Fink Arnbjerg-Nielsen, and Kaare H. Jensen
    Communications Biology, 2026
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2024

  1. Paludan2024.png
    Elastohydrodynamic interactions in soft hydraulic knots
    Magnus V. Paludan, Benjamin Dollet, Philippe Marmottant, and Kaare H. Jensen
    Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2024
    DOI HTML PDF
  2. The fluidic memristor as a collective phenomenon in elastohydrodynamic networks
    Alejandro Martínez-Calvo, Matthew D. Biviano, Anneline H. Christensen, Eleni Katifori, Kaare H. Jensen, and Miguel Ruiz-Garc’ia
    Nature Communications, 2024
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2023

  1. Elastohydrodynamic autoregulation in soft overlapping channels
    Magnus V. Paludan, Matthew D. Biviano, and Kaare H. Jensen
    Physical Review E, 2023
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  2. Astrocyte endfeet may theoretically act as valves to convert pressure oscillations to glymphatic flow
    Peter A. R. Bork, Antonio Ladr’on-de-Guevara, Anneline H. Christensen, Kaare H. Jensen, Maiken Nedergaard, and Tomas Bohr
    Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 2023
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  3. Preprint: Inverse problems in elastohydrodynamics
    Kaare H. Jensen and Anneline H. Christensen
    2023
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2022

  1. Smoothing Oscillatory Peristaltic Pump Flow with Bioinspired Passive Components
    Matthew D. Biviano, Magnus V. Paludan, Anneline H. Christensen, Emil V. Østergaard, and Kaare H. Jensen
    Physical Review Applied, 2022
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2021

  1. Fluid-structure interactions enable passive flow control in real and biomimetic plants
    Keunhwan Park, Aude Tixier, Magnus Paludan, Emil Østergaard, Maciej A. Zwieniecki, and Kaare H. Jensen
    Physical Review Fluids, 2021
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2020

  1. Bending and Stretching of Soft Pores Enable Passive Control of Fluid Flows
    Jean-François Louf, Jan Knoblauch, and Kaare H. Jensen
    Physical Review Letters, 2020
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  2. Viscous flow in a slit between two elastic plates
    Anneline H. Christensen and Kaare H. Jensen
    Physical Review Fluids, 2020
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2019

  1. Pressure-driven flow across a hyperelastic porous membrane
    Ryungeun Song, Howard A. Stone, Kaare H. Jensen, and Jinkee Lee
    Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2019
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  2. Controlling intercellular flow through mechanosensitive plasmodesmata nanopores
    Keunhwan Park, Jan Knoblauch, Karl Oparka, and Kaare H. Jensen
    Nature Communications, 2019
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2018

  1. Viscous flow in a soft valve
    Keunhwan Park, Aude Tixier, Anneline H. Christensen, Sif Fink Arnbjerg-Nielsen, Maciej A. Zwieniecki, and Kaare H. Jensen
    Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2018
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