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Wiley, Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 2(103), p. 353-360, 2009

DOI: 10.1002/bit.22248

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Secondary Flow Mixing due to Biofilm Growth in Capillaries of Varying Dimensions

This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Using a magnetic resonance microscopy (MRM) technique, velocity perturbations due to biofouling in capillaries were detected in 3-D velocity maps. The velocity images in each of the three square capillary sizes (2 mm, 0.9 mm, and 0.5 mm i.d.) tested indicate secondary flow in both the x and y directions for the biofouled capillaries. Similar flow maps generated in a clean square capillary show only an axial component. Investigation of these secondary flows and their geometric and dynamic similarity is the focus of this paper. The results showed significant secondary flows present in the 0.9 mm i.d. capillary, on the scale of 20% of the bulk fluid flow. Since this is the “standard 1 mm” size capillary used in confocal microscopy laboratory bioreactors to investigate biofilm properties, it is important to understand how these enhanced flows impact bioreactor transport.