Paper Title
Modeling And Simulation Of A Bacterial Water Flow In Porous Walled Microchannels

Abstract
A computer model based on Ansys Fluent v18 software is developed to explain the experimental data of bacterial growth in a water flow through metal-carbon-polymer nanocomposite-based microchannels. Batch growth rate tests were performed on Gram-negative Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria. Kinetic tests for the bacterial killing were performed using the silver (Ag) nanoparticles (NPs)-grown carbon nanofibers (CNFs) in polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) nanocomposite film, dispersed in the bacterial solution. Geometrical models for microchannels containing nanocomposite (Ag-ACF/CNF-PVAc) film were developed using the Autodesk inventor. Bacterial control was simulated assuming Ag imprinted porous walls. An adsorption mechanism was used in the model to simulate killing of the E. coli bacteria. The exponential growth of E. coli at inlet to the microchannel was assumed. The simulated results fitted the experimental data reasonably well. Keywords - computer model; microchannels; bacterial flow; polymer nanocomposite; bacterial growth rate.