Simulation of oxygen transfer in microbial slimes

Abstract

A model based on diffusion mechanisms accounts for oxygen transfer from flowing nutrient medium into a film of organisms in slime. Profiles of dissolved oxygen concentration are generated at distances downstream from the start of the slime. In these studies, the nutrient medium was assumed rich, thus the rate of oxygen transport limited microbial respiration. Parameter sensitivity tests were performed for flow rate, oxygen concentration in the medium, and mass transfer coefficients.