Accurate Numerical Simulation of Biobarrier Formation in Porous Media

Biofilm-forming microbes have complex effects on the flow properties of natural porous media. Subsurface biofilms have the potential for biotransformation of organic contaminants to less harmful forms, and also to form biobarriers to inhibit contaminant migration in groundwater. To describe the population distribution and movement of bacteria in porous media, we consider the convection-dispersion equation with nonlinear reactions. The reactive solute transport equation is one for which numerical solution procedures continue to exhibit significant limitations. Accurate numerical simulations are crucial to the development of contaminant remediation strategies. A new “exact” numerical method is developed for simulation of reactive bacterial transport in porous media that leads to solutions free from numerical instabilities. Applications to different biofilm models are examined and numerical results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed non-standard numerical approach.