Authors: J M R Moreira J S Teodósio F C Silva M Simões L F Melo F J Mergulhão
Publish Date: 2013/05/01
Volume: 36, Issue: 11, Pages: 1787-1796
Abstract
This work investigates the effect of flow rate variation on mass transfer and on the development of Escherichia coli biofilms on a flow cell reactor under turbulent flow conditions Computational fluid dynamics CFD was used to assess the applicability of this reactor for the simulation of industrial and biomedical biofilms and the numerical results were validated by streak photography Two flow rates of 374 and 242 L h−1 corresponding to Reynolds numbers of 6720 and 4350 were tested and wall shear stresses between 0183 and 0511 Pa were predicted in the flow cell reactor External mass transfer coefficients of 138 × 10−5 and 964 × 10−6 m s−1 were obtained for the higher and lower flow rates respectively Biofilm formation was favored at the lowest flow rate because shear stress effects were more important than mass transfer limitations This flow cell reactor generates wall shear stresses that are similar to those found in some industrial and biomedical settings thus it is likely that the results obtained on this work can be used in the development of biofilm control strategies in both scenarios
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