EDEM Research Spotlight- Analysis of Seed Processing by DEM

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RESEARCHER

Mehrdad Pasha

INSTITUTE

University of Leeds, UK

DEPARTMENT

School of Chemical and Process Engineering

SUPERVISOR

Prof. Mojtaba Ghadiri & Dr. Colin Hare

TIMELINE

01/10/2011 - 01/10/2015

EDEM has successfully been applied to simulate the coating process in rotary seed coaters. The effect of various operational parameters are investigated to optimize the process parameters. This investigation helps industry to redesign and optimise process parameters to improve the quality of the finished products. Moreover, an extensive study has been carried out to investigate the effect of particle shape on motion particles by using high speed video images and DEM simulations.

RESULTS

Mehrdad Pasha, Colin Hare, Mojtaba Ghadiri, Alfeno Gunadi, Patrick M. Piccione, Effect of Particle Shape on Flow in Discrete Element Method Simulation of a Rotary Batch Seed Coater, Powder Technology (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.powtec.2015.10.055 "˜Discrete element analysis of particle motion in a seed coater', M. Pasha, C. Hare, M. Ghadiri, A. Gunadi, P. M. Piccione, AIChE Conference. November 2014, Atlanta, United States. "˜Discrete element analysis of particle motion in a seed coater', M. Pasha, C. Hare, M. Ghadiri, A. Gunadi, P. M. Piccione, UKPTF Conference. September 2014, Manchester, United Kingdom. "˜Effect of particle shape on bulk particle motion in discrete element simulations', M. Pasha, C. Hare, M. Ghadiri, P. M. Piccione, A. Gunadi. World Congress on Particle Technology. May 2014, Beijing, China. "˜Analysis of seed processing by the Distinct Element Method', M. Pasha, C. Hare, M. Ghadiri, P. M. Piccione, S. Taylor. Powders and Grains Conference. July 2013, Sydney, Australia. "˜Analysis of seed processing by the Distinct Element Method', M. Pasha, C. Hare, M. Ghadiri, P. M. Piccione, S. Taylor. PARTEC 2013 Conference. April 2013, Nurnberg, Germany.

Fig. 1.1 Three-dimensional structure of a corn seed obtained from X-ray tomography

Fig. 1.2 Three-dimensional structure of a corn seed obtained from X-ray tomography

Fig. 1.3 Three-dimensional structure of a corn seed obtained from X-ray tomography

Fig. 2 Representation of Corn Seeds in DEM using (left to right) five, ten, fifteen and twenty spheres

Fig. 3.1 Coating uniformity of particles after 5 s

Fig. 3.2 Coating uniformity of particles after 15 s

Fig. 3.3 Coating uniformity of particles after 25 s

Fig. 3.4 Coating uniformity of particles after 35 s

particles are visualized by amount of their coating liquid mass.  

In my opinion EDEM is the fastest and the simplest commercial DEM software available in the market. The software is robust, simple to use and easy to customize which makes it the suitable for any type DEM simulations. Most importantly, DEM Solutions provide a fast and high quality technical support to the customers and this is the type of support you expect for any commercial software.

Mehrdad Pasha

University of Leeds

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