A size-structured, non-conservative ODE model of the chemostat

We study a class of size-structured, ODE models of growth in the chemostat, that take into account cell maintenance and substrate dependent cell mortality. Unlike most classical chemostat models, they are supposed to be non-conservative, in the sense that they do not verify the mass consercatiort principle However, using a change of time scale, we are able to obtain qualitative results. Then. using a Lyapunov functional, we prove the global stability of the non-trivial equilibrium. Some examples of the possible structure of the models are given to finish with. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.