Tuesday, June 17

3:15 PM-5:15 PM
Potters Room

MS23
Biofilms in Porous Media

The behavior of biofilms in porous media systems is of importance to the mining industry for the microbially enhanced leaching of metals from ores, to the petroleum industry for the control of biofilm accumulation to prevent plugging in enhanced oil recovery, and to the water resources industry for the treatment of water in packed bed reactors or for in-situ bioremediation. Current research efforts focus on three different approaches; intensive simulation of microscale models, homogenization of microscale models, and direct development of mesoscale and macroscale models. The speakers in this session will discuss mathematical and computational issues that arise when attempting to describe both the physics of biofilms and the effect of biofilms on the hydrodynamics in a porous medium. They will also describe validation with experimental results.

Organizer: Kenneth L. Bowers
Montana State University

3:15 The Effect of Biofilms on the Porosity and Permeability of a Porous Medium

Sunil K. Tiwari, Sonoma State University; and Kenneth L. Bowers, Organizer

3:45 Multi-Scale Parameter Estimation Techniques for Flow in Porous Media

Michael S. Pilant and Yan Zheng, Texas A&M University

4:15 A Network Model for Biofilm Growth and Its Effects in Porous Media

Brian Suchomel, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; Benito Chen and Myron B. Allen, University of Wyoming

4:45 Modeling Reaction-Diffusion Systems Governing Biofilm Growth in Porous Media

Myron B. Allen, Benito Chen, and Hristo Kojouharov, University of Wyoming

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