SGER: A Two-Phase Fluid Model of Prokaryotic Collective Swimming

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

ABSTRACTProposal Number: CTS-0623870 Principal Investigator: Wolgemuth, Charles W.Affiliation: University of Connecticut Health CenterProposal Title: SGER: A two-phase fluid model of prokaryotic collective swimming This proposal suggests the development of a two-phase fluid model to describe thepseudo-turbulent behavior that arises in dense colonies of swimming bacteria. When large populations of bacteria collectively swim, many interesting fluid flows can be generated and these counter-flows produce feedback on the swimming behavior of the bacteria. Therefore,studying the coupling between collective swimming of bacteria and the associated hydrodynamics will lead to a more complete understanding of colony development inlarge populations of swimming micro-organisms, such as can arise during biofilm formation.Recent experiments on dense populations of swimming Bacillus subtilis have revealed a volume fraction-dependent transition from random swimming to transient jet and vortex patterns in the bacteria/fluid mixture. This proposal will develop a model that treats theswimming bacteria as one phase of a multi-phase fluid and the surrounding water as asecond-phase. Intellectual merit: Even modest progress will greatly increase our understanding ofthe multiphase fluid dynamics that arises in bacterial populations, which will haveconsequences for other important areas of bacterial behavior such as biofilm formation.In addition, this project may provide new insights for nano- and micron-scale mixing,which could be applicable for chemical reactor applications. The project is intrinsicallyinter-disciplinary, drawing on ideas from fluid mechanics, applied mathematics, softcondensed matter physics, and biology. Broader impact: The results will be broadly disseminated at interdisciplinaryconferences and in interdisciplinary journals. In addition, the PI will teach methods andresults from this project in an interdisciplinary upper level undergraduate/graduate classthat he has developed entitled. An Introduction to Biophysics, which is cross-listedbetween biomedical engineering, physics, mathematics, and molecular and cellularbiology. This course is taught between the Health Center campus and the main campusof the University of Connecticut.