A simple bioclogging model that accounts for spatial spreading of bacteria

Abstract

An extension of biobarrier formation and bioclogging models is presented that accounts for spatial expansion of the bacterial population in the soil. The bacteria move into neighboring sites if locally almost all of the available pore space is occupied and the environmental conditions are such that further growth of the bacterial population is sustained. This is described by a density-dependent, double degenerate diffusion-equation that is coupled with the Darcy equations and a transport-reaction equation for growth limiting substrates. We conduct computational simulations of the governing differential equation system.

Keywords

• Bioclogging
• biofilm
• hydrodynamics
• porous medium
• mathematical model
• nonlinear-diffusion
• simulation