A numerical approach revealing the impact of rheological properties on mouthfeel caused by food

In contrast to the static chemoreceptor-related flavour perception, texture of food capable of flow is detected dynamically with oral mechanoreceptors while the food is manipulated in the mouth. The resulting sensation called mouthfeel strongly depends on the different physical properties of food. Aim of the current study is to determine numerically the occurring fluid mechanical forces in food suspensions using a simplified tongue-palate model system consisting of two parallel plates. For this purpose, the equations of fluid and particle motion are numerically solved by using structured overlapping grids. In the computational experiment, a density neutral fluid system between the plates is compressed by moving the upper plate with constant velocity down to the other one. It has been found that suspended particles move with the fluid flow but have only minor effect on the global flow field in the applied concentration.