Flavobacterium spp. isolates have been identified in diverse biofilm structures, but the mechanism of adherence has not been elucidated. The absence of conventional biofilm-associated structures such as fimbriae, pili, and flagella suggest that surface hydrophobicity, and/or autoaggregation and coaggregation may play an important role in adherence and biofilm formation. The biofilm-forming capacity of 29 Flavobacterium johnsoniae-like isolates obtained from South African aquaculture systems was assessed using microtiter plate assays. The role of hydrophobicity [salting aggregation test (SAT) and bacterial adherence to hydrocarbons (BATH) assays], autoaggregation, and coaggregation on biofilm formation by Flavobacterium spp. was also investigated, while biofilm structure was examined using flow cells and microscopy. All isolates displayed a hydrophilic nature, but showed varying levels of adherence in microtiter assays. Significant negative correlations were observed between adherence and biofilm-forming capacity in nutrient-poor medium at 26 degrees C and BATH hydrophobicity and motility, respectively. Isolates displayed strain-to-strain variation in their autoaggregation indices and their abilities to coaggregate with various Gram-negative and Gram-positive organisms. Microcolony and/or biofilm development were observed microscopically, and flavobacterial isolates displayed stronger biofilm structures and interaction with a Vibrio spp. isolate than with an Aeromonas hydrophila isolate. The role of extracellular polysaccharides and specific outer membrane proteins will have to be examined to reveal mechanisms of adherence and coaggregation employed by biofilm-forming F. johnsoniae-like strains.

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SUMMARYThe ultimate capacity of anchors is determined using the material point method (MPM). MPM is a socalled meshless method capable of modelling large displacements, deformations and contact between different bodies. A short introduction to MPM is given and the derivation of the discrete governing equations. The analysis of a vertically loaded anchor and one loaded at 458 is presented. The loaddisplacement curves are compared to that obtained from experiments and the effect of soil stiffness and anchor roughness is investigated. The results of the vertically loaded anchor are also compared to an analytical solution. The displacement of the soil surface above the anchor was measured and compared to the numerical predictions.Convergence with mesh refinement is demonstrated and the effect of mesh size and dilatancy angle on the shear band width and orientation is indicated.The results show that MPM can model anchor pull out successfully. No special interface elements are needed to model the anchor-soil interface and the predicted ultimate capacities were within 10% of the measured values.

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Three-dimensional Euler and full Navier–Stokes computational procedures have been utilized to simulate the flow field in an axial compressor cascade with tip clearance. An embedded H-grid topology was utilized to resolve the flow physics in the tip gap region. The numerical procedure employed is a finite difference Runge-Kutta scheme. Available measurements of blade static pressure distributions along the blade span, dynamic pressure and flow angle in the cascade outlet region, and spanwise distributions of blade normal force coefficient and circumferentially averaged flow angle are used for comparison. Several parameters that were varied in the experimental investigations were also varied in the computational studies. Specifically, measurements were taken and computations were performed on the configuration with and without: tip clearance, the presence of an endwall, inlet endwall total pressure profiles and simulated relative casing rotation. Additionally, both Euler and Navier–Stokes computations were performed to investigate the relative performance of these approaches in reconciling the physical phenomena considered. Results indicate that the Navier–Stokes procedure, which utilizes a low Reynolds number k–ε model, captures a variety of important physical phenomena associated with tip clearance flows with good accuracy. These include tip vortex strength and trajectory, blade loading near the tip, the interaction of the tip clearance flow with passage secondary flow, and the effects of relative endwall motion. The Euler computation provides good but somewhat diminished accuracy in resolution of some of these clearance phenomena. It is concluded that the level of modeling embodied in the present approach is sufficient to extract much of the tip region flow field information useful to designers of turbomachinery.