Biofilm Effect on Flow Structure over a Permeable Bed
Abstract
Biofilms constitute an important form of bacterial life in aquatic environments and are present at the fluid-solid interfaces in natural and industrial settings, such as water distribution systems and riverbeds among others. The permeable, heterogeneous, and deformable structure of biofilms can influence mass and momentum transport between the subsurface and freestream. However, this interaction is not fully understood, in part due to technical obstacles impeding quantitative experimental investigations. In this work, the effect of biofilm on flow structure over a permeable bed is studied. Experiments are conducted in a closed water channel equipped with an idealized two-dimensional permeable bed. Prior to conducting flow experiments, the models are placed within an independent recirculating reactor for biofilm growth. Once a targeted biofilm growth stage is achieved, the models are transferred to the water channel and subjected to transitional and turbulent flows. Long-distance microscopic particle image velocimetry measurements are performed to quantify the effect of biofilm on the turbulence structure of the free flow as well as the freestream-subsurface flow interaction.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFM.H23D1721K
- Keywords:
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- 0414 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 0496 Water quality;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 1830 Groundwater/surface water interaction;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1839 Hydrologic scaling;
- HYDROLOGY