Mathematical Modeling of Biofilm Development

Abstract

We perform mathematical anaysis of the biofilm development process. A model describing biomass growth is proposed: It arises from coupling three parabolic nonlinear equations: a biomass equation with degenerate and singular diffusion, a nutrient tranport equation with a biomass-density dependent diffusion, and an equation of the Navier-Stokes type, describing the fluid flow in which the biofilm develops. This flow is subject to a biomass--density dependent obstacle. The model is treated as a system of three inclusions, or variational inequalities; the third one causes major difficulties for the system's solvability. Our approach is based on the recent development of the theory on Navier-Stokes variational inequalities.