Computationally determined shear on cells grown in orbiting culture dishes

A new computational model, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), is presented that describes fluid behavior in cylindrical cell culture dishes resulting from motion imparted by an orbital shaker apparatus. This model allows for the determination of wall shear stresses over the entire area of the bottom surface of a dish (representing the growth surface for cells in culture) which was previously too complex for accurate quantitative analysis. Two preliminary cases are presented that show the complete spatial resolution of the shear on the bottom of the dishes. The maximum shear stress determined from the model is compared to an existing simplified point function that provides only the maximum value. Furthermore, this new model incorporates seven parameters versus the four in the previous technique, providing improved accuracy. Optimization of computational parameters is also discussed.