Modeling of Fluid Motion and Oxygen Transfer in Orbitally Shaken Bioreactors

Bioreactors typically rely on some form of mechanical agitation to promote mixing and oxygen transfer for successful cell culturing. One common bench-scale method that allows for high throughput testing relies on small milliliter-scale cylindrical vessels of fluid driven by an orbital shaker. In this work, we examine the fluid motion and oxygen transfer of small-scale orbitally shaken tubes as a function of the fill level and agitation rate through high-fidelity computational modeling developed in the open-source platform Basilisk, as well as reduced-order modeling. Our predictions for the interfacial deformation and oxygen transfer rate are compared directly to experimental measurements. Implications for scale-up in cultivated meat production will be discussed.