Bypassing physical prototypes for determining material flow
Optimizing their geometry and overall design can greatly influence the performance of bulk handling equipment. In many different industries, profitability can heavily depend on operations running smoothly, with limited downtime.
DEM is, in simple terms, the numerical methods for computing the motion and effect of a large number of small particles. DEM as a software tool can be very useful to understand how a material flow will behave and how geometries can be optimized during the design of equipment. Different variants can easily be tested and compared. Finding and addressing any potential problems before the equipment is produced can be very valuable. Using DEM this way can, of course, also be a way of minimizing the building and evaluation of physical prototypes, which can be costly and time consuming.