DEM Solutions announces the release of EDEM 2.1, the latest version of the multi-purpose modeling software used to simulate and optimize bulk material handling and processing operations.
EDEM 2.1 includes many features developed in collaboration with customers in the bulk handling, mining and construction, pharmaceutical, chemical and agricultural sectors, which allow users to perform more sophisticated particle simulations. EDEM 2.1 is supplied with integrated contact models and the flexibility to customize your own advanced physics and particle properties. Existing EDEM users will notice an improved user interface, an optimized Fluid Dynamics Coupling Module for FLUENT, a Dynamics Coupling option and a host of other enhancements.
For users working with materials that deform and break under stress such as in Rock Engineering, or tablet damage during mixing or transport in Pharmaceutical manufacturing, EDEM 2.1 integrates load-limited particle bonding and the ability to visualize intact and broken bonds, post process and export bond data.
For users seeking to expand into new areas with more complex particle properties, the EDEM extended API enables customization 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, cohesion can be applied to each particle and can be set to change over time or due to 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 is the first commercial DEM application to couple directly with CFD software to allow users to simulate particle-fluid systems in applications such as dense-phase conveying, filtration, drying, particle agglomeration and clumping, fluidized 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 optimized point-search algorithm, resulting in faster 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. 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 behavior of mechanical assemblies and the associated particle dynamics to be analyzed for model changes in dynamic physical systems.
