Pharmaceutical & Biotech
Leverage Rocky DEM tools to improve pharmaceutical safety and quality while reducing development, experimentation, regulatory approval, and manufacturing costs.
Overview
Developing a new medicine is a long, expensive cycle. Optimizing available resources to achieve regulatory approval is critical.
DEM simulation can be used in a variety of ways to enhance the drug development process. Virtual analysis greatly adds to insight, capturing dynamic interactions between process, geometry, and material variables. The result is significant process improvement with reduced reliance on experimental testing.
Any information gleaned can help engineers make informed decisions on formulation, process, scale-up, equipment design changes, and troubleshooting.
Applications applications
Coating
Simulate real-scale equipment using custom polyhedral particles that model pill/tablet coating processes, including covering homogeneity.
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Polyhedral elements
Accurately predict dynamic bulk behavior of tablets and pills. Polyhedron models eliminate artificially bumpy surfaces that can significantly affect particle dynamics.
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Collision statistics
Improve equipment design to reduce breakage via collision statistic data analysis.
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CFD–DEM coupling
Run coupled Rocky–Ansys Fluent simulation during the coating process to account for convective heat transfer with hot/cold airflow.
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Liquid film modeling
Model liquid-film-spray injection and drying to evaluate coating homogeneity system-wide — all while accounting for liquid-bridge adhesion forces.
Drying and Heat Exchange
Rocky DEM particle simulation accurately models both conductive and convective heat exchange — as well as drying processes — for bulk materials.
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CFD–DEM coupling
Rocky–Ansys Fluent coupled simulations enable analysis of convective heat transfer between particles and fluid.
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True physical representations
Increase simulation accuracy with realistic particle shapes that account for collisions and fluid forces.
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Multi-GPU processing
Leverage multi-GPU capabilities to handle huge cases with millions of particles.
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Liquid film modeling
Model liquid-film spray injection and drying processes to evaluate system-wide coating homogeneity — all while accounting for liquid-bridge adhesion forces.
Mixing and blending
Rocky DEM accurately predicts mixing- and blending-equipment efficiency, enabling increased batch sizes, reduced blending times, and minimal segregation.
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Greater productivity
Optimize mixing-device design to reduce blending time and increase productivity.
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Upscale equipment
Upscale equipment Apply DEM to evaluate the best upscaling strategy, from lab to commercial.
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Add complex motions
Simulate complex, combined-geometry motions using Rocky DEM’s fully integrated motion kernel.
System scale-up
Select the best scale-up strategy, from laboratory to commercial, by modeling particle-level mechanisms that influence resulting granule properties.
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True physical representations
Increase simulation accuracy using realistic particle shapes that account for collisions and fluid forces.
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Multi-GPU processing
Leverage multi-GPU capabilities to handle million-particle commercial cases, enabling a closer match to actual size.
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Add complex motions
Simulate complex, combined geometry motions using Rocky DEM’s fully integrated motion kernel.
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Enhanced post-processing
Rocky DEM capabilities enable easy information extraction for comparison with experimental results — from particle-level stresses to residence time distribution.
Controlling Discharge
Rocky DEM simulates real-world bulk-flow regulation, helping to keep flow rates at levels appropriate to the process.
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Realistic particle shapes
Accurately predict bulk material dynamic behavior using polyhedral or shell particles.
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Improve hopper discharge
Evaluate discharge flow patterns to both eliminate stagnant zones and mitigate degrading-material problems.
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Evaluate feeders and valves
Optimize valve/feeder designs for uniform hopper drawdown.
Webinar
Discover how Rocky DEM simulations can help improve pharmaceutical equipment designs
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Tablet Coating Operation
Discover how DEM simulations can be used to predict tasks like tablet mixing in a coating operation.
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Post-processing capabilities
Examine critical process output parameters for design optimization and risk mitigation during operations, improving pharmaceutical equipment design.
