Mathematical model for characterization of bacterial migration through sand cores
- Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering
The migration of chemotactic bacteria in liquid media has previously been characterized in terms of two fundamental transport coefficients--the random motility coefficient and the chemotactic sensitivity coefficient. For modeling migration in porous media, the authors have shown that these coefficients which appear in macroscopic balance equations can be replaced by effective values that reflect the impact of the porous media on the swimming behavior of individual bacteria. Explicit relationships between values of the coefficients in porous and liquid media were derived. This type of quantitative analysis of bacterial migration is necessary for predicting bacterial population distributions in subsurface environments for applications such as in situ bioremediation in which bacteria respond chemotactically to the pollutants that they degrade. The authors analyzed bacterial penetration times through sand columns from two different experimental studies reported in the literature within the context of the mathematical model to evaluate the effective transport coefficients.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- National Science Foundation, Washington, DC (United States); Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 566341
- Journal Information:
- Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Vol. 53, Issue 5; Other Information: PBD: 5 Mar 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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