Computational Math Seminar: Jay Stotsky
Numerical Simulation of Bacterial Biofilms
Jay Stotsky
Applied Mathematics,Ìý
Date and time:Ìý
Tuesday, April 29, 2014 - 10:30am
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Grandview Conference Room at 1320 Grandview Ave
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Bacterial biofilms are colonies of bacteria that secrete various chemicals that provide structural integrity and protection from the external environment. Biofilms are very problematic in industries such as the fuel industry due to their tendency to cause Microbiologically Induced Corrosion (MIC). There are major challenges in modeling and simulating biofilms because they 1) possess vastly different material properties from the ambient fluid and 2) lack well-defined boundaries. Past approaches attempted to avoid these issues by using spatially averaged material properties within the biofilm, however, this is a physically incorrect assumption as biofilms possess highly heterogeneous viscosity and density. Therefore, we take a different approach, utilizing the Immersed Boundary Method to model the structure and material properties of the biofilm down to the level of individual bacteria.