Biorheological aspects of colonic activity 1

Abstract

In order to understand colonic activity, the rheological properties of the colonic contents are needed. A suitable tube viscometer was constructed and viscometric measurements on human feces were performed. The results indicate that, at sufficiently high shear rates, the feces behave as a power law fluid, i.e. Shear Stress ∼ (Shear Rate) ^m . For these shear rates the exponent m was approximately the same for all samples tested, regardless of their consisLcncy, and equal to 0.25.