Investigation of the effect of impeller rotation rate, powder flow rate, and cohesion on powder flow behavior in a continuous blender using PEPT

Modeling of Particulate Processes for the Continuous Manufacture of Solid-Based Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms

“…Important operating parameters include mixing angle, agitator rpm and powder flowrate. Powder properties, particularly cohesiveness and flow properties, can also affect mixing performance [35,[37][38][39]. As is the case for hoppers, if components in the blend have very different properties (particle size and density) segregation may occur [40].…”

“…Composition can be assessed using near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) [34,35,[41][42][43][44]. In addition, flow trajectories within the mixer can be studied using positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) [39].…”

“…The effect of operating parameters and powder properties on mixing performance within continuous convective blenders has been studied extensively [35][36][37][38][39]41,45]. Marikh et al [36,45] have studied the influence of mass flow rate, impeller speed and bulk powder properties on the hold up within a pilot-scale continuous mixer for different agitator types.…”

“…Based on experimental studies a correlation between agitator speed and the bulk mean residence time was developed which could potentially be used for scale-up. Portillo et al [39] have studied flow behavior in continuous convective mixers as a function of impeller speed, flow rate and powder cohesiveness. Flow behavior is characterized by particle trajectories, axial dispersion coefficient and residence time.…”

Numerical simulation of the mixing process of the continuous mixer using the discrete element method

“…The structure and parameters of the mixing machinery directly affects whether the products which produced by the machinery meet the final production requirements, therefore, many scholars try to find out the relationship between mechanical structure and mixing parameter in various ways. Some scholars using different experimental approaches to analyze the mixing such as positron emission tomography(PET), positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) [3][4][5][6] , X-ray tomography [7] 和magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) [8] . However, the conclusions of these experiments are only for the study of mixing mechanism, instead of associating the quality of the mixture and mechanical structure, the design of the mixing machinery depends on experience.…”