The peristaltic effect on chemical oscillations

The effect of the periodicity of the peristaltic pumps used for experimentation with chemical oscillators is examined. The Field-Körös-Noyes (FKN) mechanism for the Belousov-Zhabotinskii oscillating reaction is used for this purpose. Solution of the appropriate differential equations shows that the oscillation pattern and period change dramatically as the pumping period is changed. It is shown that only at short pumping periods can one retrieve the same pattern and period of oscillations as in continuous pumping. The relevance of these findings to experimental results is discussed.