Results from the multi-species benchmark problem 3 (BM3) using two-dimensional models.

In addition to the one-dimensional solutions of a multi-species benchmark problem (BM3) presented earlier (Rittmann et al., 2004), we offer solutions using two-dimensional (2-D) models. Both 2-D models (called here DN and CP) used numerical solutions to BM3 based on a similar mathematical framework of the one-dimensional AQUASIM-built models submitted by Wanner (model W) and Morgenroth (model M1), described in detail elsewhere (Rittmann et al., 2004). The CP model used differential equations to simulate substrate gradients and biomass growth and a particle-based approach to describe biomass division and biofilm growth. The DN model simulated substrate and biomass using a cellular automaton approach. For several conditions stipulated in BM3, the multidimensional models provided very similar results to the 1-D models in terms of bulk substrate concentrations and fluxes into the biofilm. The similarity can be attributed to the definition of BM3, which restricted the problem to a flat biofilm in contact with a completely mixed liquid phase, and therefore, without any salient characteristics to be captured in a multidimensional domain. On the other hand, the models predicted significantly different accumulations of the different types of biomass, likely reflecting differences in the way biomass spread within the biofilm is simulated.