Numerical Simulation for Distribution and Mass Transfer of Nutrient Substance within Microbeads in Different Culture Systems

Abstract

Bioreactor is a good device for biological and chemical reactions.Microbeads have good application value in many fields because of their good permeability.This research was aimed to simulate the mass transfer process of glucose via microbeads in different culture systems including T-flasks, rotating cell culture systems and novel rotary perfusion bioreactor with Fluent software. The initial conditions are as follows. The mass fraction of glucose inside and outside the ball was 0.0 and 4.5e-6. The quality source was 6.05e-6, and the time step was 1e-3. When the T-flask was at the 10th turn and the time was at 45s, the concentration of glucose inside and outside the sphere would basically reach equilibrium. For the glucose concentration it would reach equilibrium at the 10th turn after 30s. It was confirmed that the mass transfer effect was better in Rotary cell culture system than that in other systems.