Abstract
This work presents a global sensitivity analysis and simulations of a perfusion bioreactor process using the method of high-dimensional model representation (HDMR). This method was developed to express the input–output relationships of a complex model with a high dimensional input space. The comprehensive mathematical model of convection and diffusion in a perfusion bioreactor, combined with cell growth kinetics, is developed and implemented using Computational Fluid Dynamics (with the commercial software COMSOL Multiphysics v5.5). The model describes the spatio-temporal evolution of glucose concentration, oxygen concentration, lactate concentration and cell density within a 3D polymeric scaffold. A quantitative analysis of the complex kinetic mechanisms using recent development of advanced mathematical approaches to global sensitivity and uncertainty analysis through HDMR can be exploited to investigate the important features of the perfusion bioreactor process as well as possible factors underlying qualitative discrepancies.