Abstract

Biofilms are slimy colonies of bacteria that have settled on a fluid-solid interface. They are ubiquitous and often undesirable and present numerous challenges in medicine and industry. They consist of bacteria, polymeric substances and water to form a porous structure that changes as the biofilm grows and matures. In this talk, mathematical models will be presented to describe biofilm growth as an expanding viscous fluid. The talk will broadly be in two parts. Firstly, a model for the early stages of biofilm development using thin-film approaches, where Depending on the strength of interaction between bacteria and the substratum two limits naturally arise. Secondly, a model that uses ideas from mixture theory to describe mature biofilm development, enabling prediction of fluid flow regimes within the biofilm structure.