Understanding biofilm-turbulence interaction

Microorganisms have the amazing ability to adhere to surfaces and organize into biofilms in turbulent flow environments.

These multicellular communities grow in food processing facilities, water distribution systems, heating/air conditioning networks as well as on the walls of pipes, turbine blades and cargo ships.

Biofilms in the mentioned systems have adverse effects, such as drastically increasing friction losses or exacerbating contamination risks for food and waterborne diseases.

Paradoxically, the turbulent Reynolds stresses can enhance the biofilm’s persistence and its development into a soft, permeable and patchy coating.

These complex material features trigger hydrodynamic instabilities, which feed energy back to the flow, leading to reinforcement of Reynolds stresses. The proposed project aims to understand this intrinsic biofilm-turbulence feedback loop.

The objective is to quantitatively link the rheology, and morphology of bacterial biofilms to the friction force and solute transport of turbulence.

To achieve this, we will combine experiments, computations and high-resolution imaging to simultaneously track; i) the biofilm’s geometry, elasticity and permeability and; ii) relevant turbulent statistics and coherent structures.

By varying the texture of the solid wall, we will identify new strategies for breaking the positive feedback loop between biofilms and turbulence, leading the way to new tools for reducing their detrimental effects in applications.