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Numerical simulation and experimental validation of biofilm in a multi-physics framework using an SPH based method

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Abstract

In this paper, a 3D computational model has been developed to investigate biofilms in a multi-physics framework using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) based on a continuum approach. Biofilm formation is a complex process in the sense that several physical phenomena are coupled and consequently different time-scales are involved. On one hand, biofilm growth is driven by biological reaction and nutrient diffusion and on the other hand, it is influenced by fluid flow causing biofilm deformation and interface erosion in the context of fluid and deformable solid interaction. The geometrical and numerical complexity arising from these phenomena poses serious complications and challenges in grid-based techniques such as finite element. Here the solution is based on SPH as one of the powerful meshless methods. SPH based computational modeling is quite new in the biological community and the method is uniquely robust in capturing the interface-related processes of biofilm formation such as erosion. The obtained results show a good agreement with experimental and published data which demonstrates that the model is capable of simulating and predicting overall spatial and temporal evolution of biofilm.

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Acknowledgments

The authors sincerely acknowledge the financial support of this research by Ministry of Science and Technology ,Nidersachsen, Germany in the context of MARIO graduate program in the Institute Of Continuum Mechanics (IKM) at Leibniz university of Hannover.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Continuum Mechanics, Leibniz Universit” at Hannover, Hannover, Germany

    Meisam Soleimani & Peter Wriggers

  2. Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

    Henryke Rath & Meike Stiesch

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  1. Meisam Soleimani
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  2. Peter Wriggers
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Correspondence to Meisam Soleimani.

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Soleimani, M., Wriggers, P., Rath, H. et al. Numerical simulation and experimental validation of biofilm in a multi-physics framework using an SPH based method. Comput Mech 58, 619–633 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00466-016-1308-9

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