Numerical simulation of biofilm formation in a microchannel

Abstract

The focus of this paper is the numerical solution of a mathematical model for the growth of a permeable biofilm in a microchannel. The model includes water flux inside the biofilm, different biofilm components, and shear stress on the biofilm-water interface. To solve the resulting highly coupled system of model equations, we propose a splitting algorithm. The Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) method is used to track the biofilm-water interface. Numerical simulations are performed using physical parameters from the existing literature. Our computations show the effect of biofilm permeability on the nutrient transport and on its growth.