2010 Annual Meeting
(90g) Wet-Mixing Simulations of Powders in a Blade Mixer
Authors
Radeke, C. - Presenter, Research Center Pharmaceutical Engineering (RCPE)
Khinast, J. - Presenter, Research Center Pharmaceutical Engineering GmbH
Radl, S. - Presenter, Graz University of Technology
Granular flows are extremely important for the pharmaceutical and chemical industry, as well as for other scientific branches dealing with granular media. Thus, the understanding of the impact of particle size and related effects on the mean as well as on the fluctuating flow field in granular flows is critical for design and optimization of powder processing. We use a specialized simulation tool written in C and CUDA massive parallelization technique which runs on the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). It was chosen to be able to simulate significantly higher amounts of particles in acceptable time. We focus on flow fields and wet-mixing properties obtained in the million particle range. In our talk, we present simulation results of a pitched blade mixer on a laboratory scale (10cm in diameter). Particles with a medium particle size of 365 micrometers are blended at 30-60 rpm for several turns (> 10 revolutions). The GPU implementation enable the DEM simulation of quartz powders in the real geometric resolution. That is, the simulation volume covers spatially the blade working area at 2-3 cm filling level, which is in total approximately 4 million particles. In order to investigate the mixing process during the continuous spraying of a liquid, the DEM code was extended suitable. Liquid films and bridges implement the spread of the fluid in the aggregates. Depending on the wetness level on particle surfaces, capillary forces account for cohesion and agglomeration. The simulations will shed light on the optimum location and the type of fluid entry, and allow predictions about the time until a homogeneous moisture distribution in a blended bulk can be achieved.