Center for Biofilm Engineering
Abstract:
"Biofilm Material Properties as Related to Shear-Induced Deformation and
Detachment Phenomena"
02-050 Biofilms of various Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains
were grown in glass flow cells under laminar and turbulent flows. By relating
the physical deformation of biofilms to variations in fluid shear, we found that
the biofilms were viscoelastic fluids which behaved like elastic solids over
periods of a few seconds but like linear viscous fluids over longer times. These
data can be explained using concepts of associated polymeric systems, suggesting
that the extracellular polymeric slime matrix determines the cohesive strength.
Biofilms grown under high shear tended to form filamentous streamers while those
grown under low shear formed an isotropic pattern of mound-shaped microcolonies.
In some cases, sustained creep and necking in response to elevated shear
resulted in a time-dependent fracture failure of the "tail" of the streamer from
the attached upstream "head." In addition to structural differences, our data
suggest that biofilms grown under higher shear were more strongly attached and
were cohesively stronger than those grown under lower shears.
Stoodley, P., R. Cargo, C.J. Rupp, S. Wilson, and I. Klapper, "Biofilm
Material Properties as Related to Shear-Induced Deformation and Detachment
Phenomena," J.
Industrial Microbiol. Biotech., 29(6):361-368 (2002).
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