Numerical simulation of powder flow in a pharmaceutical tablet press lab-scale gravity feeder

Numerical Analysis of the Die Filling Process Within a Pharmaceutical Tableting Machine

“…This numerical model captures the trajectories of every individual particle in the system through Newton's equation of motion. Same models to calculate normal, tangential, and non-contact forces as in [3,4] have been used. All computations were performed using the open source DEM software LIGGGHTS [12], version 3.4.1.…”

“…They were identified by previous data analysis, pharmaceutical development batches, and numerical results [3,4]. In total 16 different experiments have been performed (2 5 -1 , Tab.…”

“…In total 16 different experiments have been performed (2 5 -1 , Tab. Second, the inter-particle cohesion or powder stickiness that is in reality a combination of different non-contact forces, such as van der Waals, electrostatic, and capillary forces, was set at a low (1.0 MJ m -3 ) and high (3.5 MJ m -3 ) level (see Tab. 3) [3,4]. From a process parameters point of view, the two most important parameters turret speed and paddle wheel speed were selected.…”

“…3) as per the DoE. Third, the friction between the particles and the geometry (m PW ) that is mainly attributed to the degree of surface roughness was varied between 0.25 and 0.75 [3,4,15]. Their factor levels were set at a reasonable operating range of 40 and 75 rpm for turret speed and 30 and 60 rpm for paddle wheel speed.…”

“…The major benefit of numerical simulations by DEM lies in the highly detailed results since each and every particle can be tracked within the system [7]. Thereby most numerical studies either focused on the effect of geometry design, process parameters, or micro-mechanical material properties [3,5,6]. Thereby most numerical studies either focused on the effect of geometry design, process parameters, or micro-mechanical material properties [3,5,6].…”