Modeling of Biofilm Growth on Ager Substrate Using the Extended Finite Element Method

Abstract

Various types of bacterial form adhesive aggregates on surfaces known as biofilms, which are of interest to researchers in a great variety of fields. In this paper, a continuum model based on diffusion-reaction is proposed and extended finite element method (XFEM) coupled to level set is employed to simulate the biofilm growth on ager substrate. Numerical results show the quantitative relationship between colony morphology and nutrient deletion. Comparing with experiment observation, we approve that diffusion limited regime is more appropriate than growth limited regime to describe Bacillus subtilis biofilm growth on MSgg ager substrate. Our model can be extended to investigate detailed biological process in biofilm growth such as cell subdivision and osmotic pressure induced transportation.