A soft tubular model reactor based on the bionics of a small intestine: anti particulate fouling by peristalsis

The formation and accumulation of the fouling in traditional reactors made of rigid materials is a serious issue in industry, and the general fouling inhibition measures and cleaning are cumbersome, time-consuming and high cost. In this study, a new soft flexible tubular reactor (i.e. the small intestine model reactor, SIMR) was designed and constructed based on bio-inspiration of the structural features and functionalities of the human small intestine. The anti-particulate fouling and the cleaning of the fouling were achieved through the SIMR with the simulated peristalsis, and the effects of antifouling were found to depend on the peristaltic frequency and effective peristaltic distance. The experimental results showed that the increased local Reynolds number induced by the increased peristaltic frequency reduced the fouling percentage of particulates in the SIMR. The fouling percentage at local Reynolds number of 2433 decreased about 37% compared with that at local Reynolds number of 159. The fouling percentage decreased 67.1% when the effective distance of peristalsis increased to 17.2 cm. The regular change of peristaltic location significantly decreased the fouling percentage. Under the peristaltic frequency of 40 times/min, the fouling percentage in the SIMR with regular change of the peristaltic location was reduced by 78.7% compared with that without peristalsis. The peristalsis noticeably facilitated the cleaning of the fouling in the SIMR, and basically all the fouling in the SIMR was cleaned up at local Reynolds number of 1864 induced by the peristaltic frequency of 30 times/min.Graphical abstract