Dynamics of bacterial streamers induced clogging in microfluidic devices

Abstract

Using a microfabricated porous media mimic platform, we investigated the clogging dynamics of bacterial biomass that accumulated in the device due to the formation of bacterial streamers. Particularly, we found the existence of a distinct clogging front which advanced via pronounced 'stick-slip' of the viscoelastic bacterial biomass over the solid surface of the micro pillar. Thus, the streamer, the solid surface, and the background fluidic media defined a clear three-phase front influencing these advancing dynamics. Interestingly, we also found that once the clogging became substantial, contrary to a static homogenous saturation state, the clogged mimic exhibited an instability phenomena marked by localized streamer breakage and failure leading to extended water channels throughout the mimic. These findings have implications for design and fabrication of biomedical devices and membrane-type systems such as porous balloon catheters, porous stents and filtration membranes prone to bacteria induced clogging as well as understanding bacterial growth and proliferation in natural porous media such as soil and rocks.

Pore‐scale modeling of competition and cooperation of multispecies biofilms for nutrients in changing environments

“…In the recent years, the development of novel microfluidics devices with optical access may advance this field by constraining biofilm architecture to facilitate observational studies relevant to biofilm ecology. The microfluidics could image interactions among bacteria and stream to provide high spatial resolution and capabilities for real‐time observation and manipulate the environment at those scales . For example, Liu et al experimentally investigated effects of flow velocity and nutrient concentration on biofilm growth and adhesive strength in a T‐shaped microchannel.…”

Real‐time monitoring of Escherichia coli concentration with planar microwave resonator sensor

“…The integration of microfluidic structures with microwave resonators brings very attractive characteristics to microwave sensors and enables high‐throughput analysis in constant volumes in the range of nanoliters to milliliters . This aspect allows inspection of live cells in a closed microfluidic chip, while reducing the risk of environmental contamination . The conjunction of microwave electromagnetics and microfluidic technology is starting to be utilized in cancer‐cell identification, and bacterial and viral contamination monitoring .…”

“…11,12 This aspect allows inspection of live cells in a closed microfluidic chip, while reducing the risk of environmental contamination. 13,14 The conjunction of microwave electromagnetics and microfluidic technology is starting to be utilized in cancer-cell identification, 15 and bacterial and viral contamination monitoring. [16][17][18] A coplanar waveguide integrated with a microfluidic structure has been reported to distinguish live from heat-killed E. coli cells with OD 600 of 3.0 (2.4 × 10 9 cells/mL) at a wide range of frequency (0.5-20 GHz).…”

Abiotic streamers in a microfluidic system

“…This structural effect of the confining geometry could be of particular interest in microfluidic devices with parallel micro-pillars which serve as analogs to diverse microporous media 24,25 . Such systems are already well known to be vulnerable to a streamer mode of fouling and clogging as described earlier 25 . In this paper, we study the effect of this type of device geometry on a synthetic flow system, which is topically similar to the bacteria floc laden flow in terms of mechanical constitution.…”