Monitoring of the formation of biofilm inside a glass tube using light scattering patterns

In a flow channel, generally, microorganisms derived from bacteria contained in water first attach to a surface, form colonies and then become a pollutant known as biofilm. It is important to control the generation and growth of this pollutant, because it has the disadvantage of causing insanitary conditions inside tubes employed in medical and food processing, resulting in various infections. In the present study, we estimate the process of formation of biofilm inside a glass tube by means of binarization and fractal dimension of light scattering patterns obtained under illumination of a white light source and a laser diode. Experiments are conducted for glass tubes filled with bacteria-containing water without flow and with flow to confirm the feasibility of the present method for monitoring biofilm adhering to their inner surfaces.