Introduction to the IWA Task Group on Biofilm Modeling

An International Water Association (IWA) Task Group on Biofilm Modeling was created with the purpose of comparatively evaluating different biofilm modeling approaches. The task group developed three benchmark problems for this comparison, and used a diversity of modeling techniques that included analytical, pseudo-analytical, and numerical solutions to the biofilm problems. Models in one, two, and three dimensional domains were also compared. The first benchmark problem (BM1) described a monospecies biofilm growing in a completely mixed reactor environment and had the purpose of comparing the ability of the models to predict substrate fluxes and concentrations for a biofilm system of fixed total biomass and fixed biomass density. The second problem (BM2) represented a situation in which substrate mass transport by convection was influenced by the hydrodynamic conditions of the liquid in contact with the biofilm. The third problem (BM3) was designed to compare the ability of the models to simulate multispecies and multisubstrate biofilms. These three benchmark problems allowed identification of the specific advantages and disadvantages of each modeling approach. A detailed presentation of the comparative analyses for each problem is provided elsewhere in these proceedings.