X-ray tomography-based 3D visualizations of microbial biofilm architecture and distribution in porous media columns. The experiments represent three different flow rates, varying three orders of magnitude (slowest on the left, fastest on the right). The glass beads (representing a simplified version of a groundwater aquifer material) are gray, and the biofilm is purple. Image provided by Dorthe Wildenschild, OSU College of Engineering. Ostvar, S., Iltis, G., Davit, Y., Schlüter, S., Andersson, L., Wood, B.

X-ray tomography-based 3D visualizations of microbial biofilm architecture and distribution in porous media columns.

Image from: Ostvar, S., Iltis, G., Davit, Y., Schlüter, S., Andersson, L., Wood, B.D., and D. Wildenschild, Advances in Water Resources, Volume 117, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2018.03.018

 

Collaborators:

 Sponsor:

RA:

 

Tala Navab-Daneshmand, Oregon State University

NSF CBET and ISS National Laboratory

Julia Lauterbach

This project aims to improve existing theories describing biofilm growth and functional processes by generating data that will first and foremost support the development of a mechanistic and quantitative understanding of biofilm function in porous media. The overarching goal of the research is to use the microgravity environment on the International Space Station to study the respective roles that gravity and capillarity (interfacial forces) play in the development of biofilms in porous media on Earth. By conducting biofilm growth experiments under saturated conditions in microgravity (microG) and on Earth (1G), the role that gravity plays in the development of biofilm architecture in the absence of capillarity can be assessed. By conducting a complementary set of experiments under unsaturated conditions (in both microG and 1G), the role of the force balance between gravity and capillarity will be studied, along with the effects on both hydrodynamics and associated differences in biofilm growth. Using 3D imaging, the research team aims to establish a "phase diagram" for biofilm growth along the lines of those used to conceptualize different multi-phase (unsaturated) flow regimes.

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