Numerical simulation of orbitally shaken viscous fluids with free surface

Author (s): Discacciati, M; Hacker, D.; Quarteroni, A.; Quinodoz, S.; Tissot, S. and Wurm, F.M.
Journal: International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids

Volume: 71, Number 3
Pages: 294 – 315
Date: 2013

Abstract:
Orbitally shaken bioreactors are an emerging alternative to stirred-tank bioreactors for large-scale mammalian cell culture, but their fluid dynamics is still not well defined. Among the theoretical and practical issues that remain to be resolved, the characterization of the liquid free surface during orbital shaking remains a major challenge because it is an essential aspect of gas transfer and mixing in these reactors. To simulate the fluid behavior and the free surface shape, we developed a numerical method based on the finite element framework. We found that the large density ratio between the liquid and the gas phases induced unphysical results for the free surface shape. We therefore devised a new pressure correction scheme to deal with large density ratios.

Journal paper (from the publisher)  
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Bibtex:

@article {DHQQTW:13,
    AUTHOR = {M. Discacciati and D. Hacker and A. Quarteroni and S. Quinodoz and S. Tissot and F.M. Wurm},
     TITLE = {Numerical simulation of orbitally shaken viscous fluids with
              free surface},
   JOURNAL = {Internat. J. Numer. Methods Fluids},
  FJOURNAL = {International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids},
    VOLUME = {71},
      YEAR = {2013},
    NUMBER = {3},
     PAGES = {294--315},
      ISSN = {0271-2091},
       DOI = {10.1002/fld.3658},
       URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/fld.3658}
}