The flow field around surface-mounted, prismatic obstacles with different spanwise dimensions was investigated using the crystal violet, oil-film and laser-sheet visualization techniques as well as by static pressure measurements. The aim of this study is to highlight the fundamental differences between nominally two-dimensional and fully three-dimensional obstacle flows. All experiments were performed in a fully developed channel flow. The Reynolds number, based on the height of the channel, lay between 8 × 104 and 1.2 × 105. Results show that the middle region of the wake is nominally two-dimensional for width-to-height ratios (W/H) greater than 6. The separated region in front of wider obstacles is characterized by the appearance of a quasi-regular distribution of saddle and nodal points on the forward face of the obstacles. These three-dimensional effects are considered to be inherent to such separating flows with stagnation.

Results of an experimental investigation of the inhomogeneous, three-dimensional flow around a surface mounted cube in a channel are presented. LDA measurements of single-point velocity correlations are used to determine the production, convection and transport of the turbulence kinetic energy, k, in the obstacle wake. The turbulence dissipation rate is obtained as a closing term to the balance of the k-transport equation. The results provide some insight to the evolution of the turbulence dissipation rate from the near field recirculation zone to the asymptotic wake. Also presented is a comparison between measured and modeled transport terms.

The long-term antimicrobial efficacy of silver dressings against bacterial biofilms was investigated in a 7-day treatment in vitro model where the protein-rich medium was refreshed daily in order to mimic the conditions found in a wound bed. The use of plate-to-plate transfer assays demonstrated measurable differences in the effectivenesses of several silver dressings on the viability of biofilm bacteria and their susceptibility to antibiotics. Whereas after the first day of treatment, all dressings used resulted in a significant reduction in the number of viable cells in the biofilms and disruption of the biofilm colonies, during prolonged treatment, the efficacy of dressings with hydrophilic base materials diminished with daily transfers, and bacterial populations recovered. For dressings with hydrophobic base materials, the level of efficacy correlated with the silver species loaded. Biofilm bacteria, which survived the initial silver treatment, were susceptible to tobramycin, ciprofloxacin, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, in contrast to untreated biofilms, which were highly tolerant to the same antibiotics. This acquired susceptibility was unaffected by the longevity of pretreatment with the silver dressings but depended on the dressing used. The antimicrobial efficacy of the dressings correlated with the type of the dressing base material and silver species loaded.

Abstract-The appearance of highly resistant bacterial biofilms in both community and hospitals environments is a major challenge in modern clinical medicine. The biofilm structural morphology, believed to be an important factor affecting the behavioral properties of these ''super bugs'', is strongly influenced by the local hydrodynamics over the microcolonies. Despite the common use of agitated well plates in the biology community, they have been used rather blindly without knowing the flow characteristics and influence of the rotational speed and fluid volume in these containers. The main purpose of this study is to characterize the flow in these high-throughput devices to link local hydrodynamics to observed behavior in cell cultures. In this work, the flow and wall shear stress distribution in six-well culture plates under planar orbital translation is simulated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Free surface, flow pattern and wall shear stress for two shaker speeds (100 and 200 rpm) and two volumes of fluid (2 and 4 mL) were investigated. Measurements with a non-intrusive optical shear stress sensor and High Frame-rate Particle Imaging Velocimetry (HFPIV) are used to validate CFD predictions. An analytical model to predict the free surface shape is proposed. Results show a complex three-dimensional flow pattern, varying in both time and space. The distribution of wall shear stress in these culture plates has been related to the topology of flow. This understanding helps explain observed endothelial cell orientation and bacterial biofilm distributions observed in culture dishes. The results suggest that the mean surface stress field is insufficient to capture the underlying dynamics mitigating biological processes.

The configuration and energetics of the large-scale vortex structure are presented for quasi-periodic shedding in the turbulent wake of a finite (h=d ¼ 4) square-cross-section surface-mounted cylinder protruding from a thin boundary layer (d=h ¼ 0.18). The three-dimensional large-scale structure is educed from phase averaged x-y and x-z planar data measured with particle image velocimetry (PIV). Simultaneous measurements of the surface pressure difference on either side of the obstacle were used to phase-align the PIV planar measurements. The topology of the educed structures resembles alternating half-loops interconnecting close to the base plate. The time averaging of this unsteady structure gives rise to mean streamwise vortices akin to those presented in the literature for similar geometries. This topological analysis offers a contrasting interpretation of the mean streamwise vorticity, which has, otherwise, been presumed to originate from structures generated at the leading edge of the free-end. The dynamical significance of the resolved large scale structures and unresolved fluctuating kinetic energy in the wake is presented, either part being responsible for roughly half the mean kinetic energy. A discussion of turbulence production in light of the base flow that supplies it with energy is put forward.

Microbes frequently live within multicellular, solid surface-attached assemblages termed biofilms. These microbial communities have architectural features that contribute to population heterogeneity and consequently to emergent cell functions. Therefore, three-dimensional (3D) features of biofilm structure are important for understanding the physiology and ecology of these microbial systems. This paper details several protocols for scanning electron microscopy and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) of biofilms grown on polystyrene pegs in the Calgary Biofilm Device (CBD). Furthermore, a procedure is described for image processing of CLSM data stacks using amira™, a virtual reality tool, to create surface and/or volume rendered 3D visualizations of biofilm microorganisms. The combination of microscopy with microbial cultivation in the CBD -an apparatus that was designed for highthroughput susceptibility testing -allows for structure-function analysis of biofilms under multivariate growth and exposure conditions.

This paper presents some results of the experimental investigation of the local convective heat transfer on a wall-mounted cube placed in a developing turbulent channel flow for Reynolds numbers between 2750 < ReH < 4970. Experiments were conducted using a specially designed cubic assembly made of heated copper core and a thin epoxy layer on its surface. The distribution of the local heat transfer coefficient was obtained from the surface heat flux evaluated from the heat input and computed temperature field in the epoxy layer, and from the surface temperature distribution acquired by infrared thermography. In parallel, the flow field was studied using laser doppler anemometer and flow visualizations, aimed at correlating the local heat transfer with the flow pattern and turbulence field. The complex vortex structure around the cube, in particular at the top and the side faces, caused large variation in the local convective heat transfer. The largest gradients in the distributions of the surface heat transfer were found at locations of flow separation and reattachment. Areas of flow recirculation are typically accompanied by a minimum in the heat transfer coefficient. It is argued that the local temperature rise of the air in the recirculation zone is caused by the trapped vortex, which acts as an insulation layer preventing the removal of heat from the surface of the cubes. In contrast, the intermittent reattachment of the low-temperature shear flow was found to produce large heat transfer coefficients.

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