Mass transport in a micropatterned bioreactor

Abstract

A computational fluid dynamics model was developed to investigate the concentration distribution of species which are secreted in one cell lane and absorbed in another cell lane, as co-cultured in a micro-patterned bioreactor. The study was carried out with axial and cross flow configurations and investigated the effect of Peclet number and Damkohler number, of release and absorption lane, on the concentration distribution at the cell surface. A commercial CFD software, FLUENT was used to solve the species transport equation, and a user defined function was developed to incorporate the boundary condition. The results show that micro-pattern with cross flow is more effective than that with axial flow. In cross flow, higher Peclet number lowers the difference in concentration between the release and the absorption cell lanes, but the mean values at the bioreactor base is lower as well. Higher Damkohler number of release lane results in higher mean values but higher difference in concentration as well. Higher Damkohler number of absorption lane gives lower mean values and higher difference in concentration between the two lanes.