Abstract
To investigate the influence of food rheology on aspiration, a swallowing flow was numerically simulated. A simplified 3-D throat model was introduced. Increasing in the bolus viscosity, the leading edge velocity is reduced. The remarkable reduction in the velocity is obtained for the bolus viscosity higher than 8.72×(10)^<-2>Pas. The bolus with the higher viscosity induces higher driving pressure to produce the swallowing flow. The bolus viscosity 0.872Pas gives the remarkable pressure increase, which would make swallowing harder. The dependency of viscosity on the shear rate was discussed using a power law model.
