Multi-scale modeling of biofilm detachment in fluid with a poroviscoelastic model
Final Report Abstract
In this project, a numerical model was developed to predict and to study deformation, detachment and growth processes of biofilm. It built up on the doctoral thesis of the applicant (Dr. Feng), where a growth model for biofilm was developed. In this project, the focus was on the short time scales, the fluid-structure interaction and the detachment. This involved the derivation of a new model concept and a new poroelastic Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) model. More specific: A multidimensional poroelastic fluid-structure interaction (FSI) model was developed based on the weakly compressible SPH method. The model is biphasic by considering the porous material as a mixture of a solid skeleton and the pore liquid inside. Remarkably, although the detailed porous structures are homogenized in the model, different phases of the materials are numerically discretized with different types of elements (particles) which allows transport of the fluid in and out of the porous media freely. Moreover, such a model also allows the change of the porosity of the material locally and adaptively. The model should be applied to study the properties that influence the detachment process. The poroelastic FSI model was set up to investigate the role of the stress field of the bio-material on the deformation and detachment process of a biofilm in a microfluidic channel. Simulation results closely aligned with experimental observations taken from the literature. By further invoking a damage model, the developed model is capable of reproducing several biofilm detachment patterns. The model was also set up for studying the FSI process of heterogeneous porous structure interacting with free surface water. Lacking a biofilm benchmark case, the well-known benchmark problem called ’Dam breaks interact with crushed rock structures’ was investigated. Although this is a problem on very different length scales, it captures the features (poroelastic FSI model) of the biofilm model. Apart from model development, we investigated the bio-chemical behaviour of heterogeneous multispecies biofilms at different time scales. For this purpose, we developed a multi-species biofilm growth model with an example analysis of the Veillonella-S. gordonii symbiotic biofilm system without consideration of detachment and deformation. In the system that was studied, the heterogeneous distribution had a homogenizing effect on the growth. Also, the problem of microbial induced calcite precipitation (MICP) in porous media was studied, which incorporates bacterial growth and decay modeling.
Publications
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Modeling of Symbiotic Bacterial Biofilm Growth with an Example of the Streptococcus–Veillonella sp. System. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 83(5).
Feng, Dianlei; Neuweiler, Insa; Nogueira, Regina & Nackenhorst, Udo
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Numerical methods for biofilm life cycle modeling at different time scales: from space-time finite element to SPH, ICCM2021 Meeting, 07/2021, Virtual conference.
Feng, D., Neuweiler, I. & Liu, M.
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Numerical modeling of the mechanical response of bacterial biofilm to flow by using an SPH poroviscoelastic model, 91st GAMM Meeting, 01/2021, Virtual conference
Feng, D., Neuweiler, I., Liu, M. & Nackenhorst, U.
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A comparative study of using two numerical strategies to simulate the biochemical processes in microbially induced calcite precipitation. Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 14(2), 592-602.
Feng, Dianlei; Wang, Xuerui; Nackenhorst, Udo; Zhang, Xuming & Pan, Pengzhi
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Numerical modeling of wave-porous structure interaction process with an SPH model. SCIENTIA SINICA Physica, Mechanica & Astronomica, 52(10), 104715.
FENG, Dianlei; NEUWEILER, Insa & HUANG, Yu
