Speaker
Description
Bioclogging alters permeability through the coupled evolution of pore-scale hydrodynamics, pore structure, and biofilm morphology during biofilm growth. Many pore-scale models treat biofilms as impermeable solids and neglect shear-driven detachment under spatially non-uniform flow, which can bias predictions of residual permeability in heterogeneous porous media. Here we develop an improved coupled LBM–IBM–CA (lattice Boltzmann–immersed boundary–cellular automata) model that represents biofilms as a microporous phase with finite permeability and updates growth and detachment dynamically as clogging progresses. Heterogeneous pore structures are generated using Gaussian statistics, and biofilm micro-permeability is incorporated via a Brinkman-type drag formulation to permit intra-biofilm flow and associated pressure redistribution. We conduct parametric simulations spanning pore-structure heterogeneity and biofilm permeability to quantify their nonlinear coupling with shear detachment. Biofilm growth is advanced by cellular-automata rules, while detachment is triggered when local interfacial shear exceeds a prescribed criterion, allowing the feedback between preferential flow and erosion to emerge naturally. Simulations show that structural heterogeneity promotes preferential flow paths and produces intermittent high-shear regions at biofilm–fluid interfaces; in the impermeable-biofilm formulation, these shear peaks lead to frequent detachment events and pronounced oscillations in permeability. When biofilm permeability is included, intra-biofilm flow reduces near-interface velocity gradients and interfacial shear, providing a hydraulic buffering mechanism that stabilizes biofilm retention in high-shear zones. Consequently, permeability trajectories exhibit substantially damped fluctuations and converge to a more stable residual hydraulic conductivity, even with higher retained biomass. These results underscore the importance of representing biofilm micro-permeability and shear detachment for pore-scale prediction of bioclogging dynamics in strongly heterogeneous porous media.
| Country | China |
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