Experimental and numerical investigation of flow behaviors of some selected food supplements in modeled intestine

This study presents the flow of Hibiscus Sabdariffa Roselle (Sobo), Soymilk (Soya), and Pap (Ogi) through a modeled intestine. The study employed experimental and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques, while AUTODESK INVENTOR 2020 version was used to draw the 3-D computational model of the human intestine. ANSYS FLUENT 16.0 was utilized as a CFD solver. Analyses of the results show that fluid velocity, pressure, density, and viscosity significantly influence the flow behavior of nutrients in the intestinal walls. The density and viscosity of the investigated fluids are in the range of 800-1024 kg/m3 and 0.316-1.095 Pas, respectively, while the maximum and the minimum viscosity were observed with Ogi and Sobo, respectively. The highest drop in the velocity along the whole length of the intestinal model was noticed between 0.8 and 1.5 m, which corresponds to the pulsating section of the model. The maximum and minimum Reynolds numbers were recorded with Sobo and Ogi samples, respectively. For effective flow and to avoid complications when taking the food supplements, especially for someone under medication, a flow velocity of 0.005 m/s is recommended. The presence of villi in the intestinal wall augmented heat transfer.