Peristaltic elastic instability in an inflated cylindrical channel

Abstract

A long cylindrical cavity through a soft solid forms a soft microfluidic channel, or models a vascular capillary. We observe experimentally that, when such a channel bears a pressurized fluid, it first dilates homogeneously, but then becomes unstable to a peristaltic elastic instability. We combine theory and numerics to fully characterize the instability in a channel through a bulk neo-Hookean solid, showing that instability occurs supercritically with wavelength $2\pi/k=12.278....a$ when the pressure exceeds $2.052....\mu$. In finite solids, the threshold pressure is reduced, and peristalsis is followed by a second instability which shears the peristaltic shape breaking axisymmetry. These instabilities shows that, counterintuitively, if a pipe runs through a bulk solid, the bulk solid can be destabilizing rather than stabilizing at high pressures. They also offers a route to fabricate periodically undulating channels, producing waveguides with photonic/phononic stop bands.