Investigation of the onset of bioconvection in a suspension of oxytactic microorganisms subjected to high-frequency vertical vibration

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of vertical vibration on the stability of a dilute suspension of oxytactic microorganisms in a shallow horizontal fluid layer. For the case of high-frequency vibration, an averaging method is utilized to derive the equations describing the mean flow by decomposing the solutions of governing equations into two components: one that varies slowly with time, and a second that varies rapidly with time. Linear stability analysis is used to investigate the stability of the obtained averaged equations. It is predicted that high-frequency, low-amplitude vertical vibration has a stabilizing effect on a suspension of oxytactic microorganisms confined in a shallow horizontal layer.