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| Titel |
Numerical Simulation of Microbiological Growth in the Capillary Fringe |
| VerfasserIn |
P. Hron, D. Jost, C. Engwer, O. Ippisch, P. Bastian |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2012
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 14 (2012) |
| Datensatznummer |
250068139
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| Zusammenfassung |
| The capillary fringe (CF) is a highly dynamic zone in a porous media at the interface between
water-saturated aquifer and vadose zone, where steep biogeochemical gradients and thus high
bioactivities are expected. In recent years, considerable effort has been undertaken to deepen
the understanding of the physical (flow, diffusion, dispersion), geochemical (dissolution,
precipitation) and biological (metabolism, excretion, biofilm formation) processes in the
CF.
We developed a numerical simulator for multiphase multicomponent flow in porous
media which is able to consider simultaneously multiphase flow, component transport, phase
exchange, geochemical reactions and microbiological processes. A splitting approach for
phase transport, component transport and reaction/phase exchanges allows the usage of
higher-order discretizations for the component transport. This reduces numerical
dispersion significantly, which is especially important in the simulation of reactive
flow.
In a flow-through laboratory experiment performed at the Karlsruhe Institute of
Technology, Germany, within the project “Dynamic Capillary Fringes - A Multidisciplinary
Approach”, the oxygen phase transfer, the growth and the transport of a bacteria (green
fluorescent Escherichia coli) were investigated. The results of numerical simulations of the E.
coli growth in the CF with a high nutrient supply under steady-state and transient flow
conditions are compared to the experimental data. |
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