DEM updates EDEM modelling software

DEM Solutions has released EDEM 2.1, the latest version of the multi-purpose modelling software used to simulate and optimise bulk material handling and processing operations.

EDEM 2.1 comes with integrated contact models and the flexibility to customise advanced physics and particle properties.

This version boasts an improved user interface, an optimised Fluid Dynamics Coupling Module for Fluent and a new dynamics coupling option.

EDEM 2.1 integrates load-limited particle bonding and the ability to visualise intact and broken bonds, post process and export bond data.

These features are useful when working with materials that deform and break under stress, for example in rock engineering.

They are also useful in pharmaceutical manufacturing, where tablet damage can occur during mixing or transport.

For users seeking to expand into new areas with more complex particle properties, the EDEM extended API enables customisation of particle contact and body force models and provides full data-save and post-processing of user-defined particle attributes.

In processes such as coating, for example, cohesion can be applied to each particle and can be set to change over time or in the case of interactions with other materials.

These custom properties could then show regions of non-uniform coating or variable cohesion between particles within the coating drum.

EDEM couples with CFD software to allow users to simulate particle-fluid systems in applications such as dense-phase conveying, filtration, drying, particle agglomeration and clumping, fluidised flow, solid-liquid mixing and spray coating.

EDEM uses a surface mesh to represent the geometric boundary, which enables a one-to-one coupling with the boundary surface elements of the Fluent fluid volume.

The EDEM-CFD Coupling Module for Fluent in EDEM 2.1 has an optimised point-search algorithm which speeds-up processing.

For those involved with mixing or drying applications, the heat transfer capability in EDEM 2.1 provides quantifiable data on the effect of heat on particles.

For example, using the custom particle properties, the variation of moisture in a particle can be related to the particle temperature.

For equipment manufacturers looking at the interaction of particle dynamics with mechanical loads on equipment, the EDEM Dynamics Coupling feature enables EDEM's geometry motion to be controlled by external third-party dynamics software.

This allows the interdependency of the complex behaviour of mechanical assemblies and the associated particle dynamics to be analysed for model changes in dynamic physical systems.

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