DEM Solutions upgrades EDEM software

DEM Solutions, a supplier of discrete element modelling (DEM) software and services, has released EDEM 2.1, the latest version of its software used to simulate and optimise bulk material handling and processing operations.

EDEM 2.1 is supplied with many new integrated contact models and the flexibility to customise advanced physics and particle properties.

The new version includes an improved user interface, an optimised fluid dynamics coupling module for Fluent, a new dynamics coupling option, plus a host of other enhancements.

For users working in pharmaceutical manufacturing where tablets can be damaged during mixing and transportation, EDEM 2.1 integrates load-limited particle bonding and has the ability to visualise 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 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 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 said to be 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, 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, resulting in much faster processing.

"EDEM 2.1 recognises the need for an advanced feature set to support the innovative simulations being carried out by EDEM users in almost every industry sector and engineering discipline," said John Favier, chief executive of DEM Solutions.