Particle-Lattice and Automaton Model of Bioturbation

Abstract

LONG-TERM GOALS. My long term goal is to help the quantitative understanding of the relationship between infaunal behavior and consequent sediment modifications, and their effects on acoustic propagation in marine sediments. I hope to supply information on this relationship to the acousticians in our group (i.e. Darrel Jackson and co-workers) for incorporation in their forward and/or backward acoustical models. OBJECTIVES. The objective is to create a mechanistic mathematical model of animal-sediment interactions. Current models that are based on biodiffusion, nonlocal mixing, etc. cannot easily simulate, for example, animal-produced density heterogeneities, which affect acoustics, as they are essentially all dissipative processes, i.e. smooth out , rather than generate heterogeneities. My new model is capable of generating sediment heterogeneities. APPROACH. My approach is the direct modelling of organism-sediment interactions via a new type of model. Biologically active sediment is represented on a computer as a regular lattice of quasi-particles with individually assigned chemical, biological or physical properties. Model benthic organisms are introduced in the form of automatons, i.e. programmable entities, that are capable of moving through the particle lattice by displacing or ingesting-defecating particles. Each automaton obeys a set of rules, both deterministic and stochastic, designed to mimic real organism behavior, and different types of organisms have different sets of rules. The computer coding of the model is being done by a PDF, i.e. Frederique Francois (March to August) and Jae Choi (since August). The code is in FORTRAN 90 with user interface and automated graphical (raster) output (see below for examples). A current version of the code can be viewed at ftp://mudchem.ocean.dal.ca/ONR.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 30, 1999
Accession Number
ADA634984

Entities

People

  • Bernard P. Boudreau

Organizations

  • Dalhousie University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Propagation
  • Acoustics
  • Animal Behavior
  • Animals
  • Automata
  • Heterogeneity
  • Mathematical Models
  • Models
  • Nova Scotia
  • Particle Size
  • Particles
  • Physical Properties
  • Porosity
  • Sediments
  • Simulations
  • Statistical Analysis
  • User Interface

Readers

  • Aquatic Ecology
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation