I’m looking for the best way to analyze and do some modeling of shear stress in the bioreactor. Do you have any advice?
This question is part of the following Ask The Expert session:
Addressing Shear Stress in Bioreactors
Answered by:
Company: Merck
Job Title: Head of Perfusion Systems Lab, Life Science, BioProcessing R&D,
Answer
Modeling the turbulent flow in bioreactors is very complex from a fluid mechanic point of view. There is turbulent kinetic energy dissipation (TKE) from the agitators, but also stress due to bubble formation and bubble burst. These effects cannot be modeled exactly in shaken systems. We have developed a shaken system that does induce turbulent flow in baffled shake flasks, however, the types of shear might be present in different proportions, compared to a bioreactor. We will be working with academic partners to answer these questions.
This post is sponsored by MilliporeSigma.