Simulation Tools for Pharmaceutical, Food and Chemical Process Industries

Introduction of Simulation Tools for Pharmaceutical, Food and Chemical Process Industries

Process industries generally rely on the technology of equipment manufacturers in process development. For a new material or process, equipment manufacturer proposes a solution based on experience. For example, granulation process has to be developed for a new powder. A prototype is built and tested. After some experimentation full scale equipment is built. This approach is time consuming and has certain pitfalls. If a new material or process is being developed, the manufacturer’s experience is limited. On the other hand, the process company has limited knowledge of the equipment. After a series of tests, a prototype is designed. After a prototype is built and tested, the physical properties of the material required to describe the process is measured fully for the first time. Yet, the measurements from the prototype are not always sufficient to predict the full scale process. Material and process parameters can not be scaled linearly for most material. Sometimes, major difficulties are observed only after the full scale equipment is built.

Process simulation to complement and improve process development is being introduced rather slowly. In product development, simulation tools are widely used. For designing an automobile or an airplane one cannot imagine only testing and not using simulation tools. Many times, chemical engineers or food scientists are more concerned about the properties of materials for other concerns than manufacturing. Manufacturing process is addressed after the material is developed. Thus, in pharmaceutical, food and chemical industries, optimization of manufacturing processes may hot have attracted as much attention as the product industries. On the other hand the concerns are similar: time to market, quality and efficiency in production.

In introducing simulation to process industries the following steps can be suggested:
• Early in the development of the material and the process, physical properties of the material can be measured even if a small amount of material is available in a test tube.
• This new material and process can be simulated and optimized toward the design of the prototype.
• After the prototype is built, it would be used to complement and validate the simulation model. Further optimization can be accomplished by the simulation model in shorter time than if only the prototype was used.
• Scale-up to full scale is then conducted through simulation before the full scale model is built. The critical parameters and possible difficulties can be predicted ahead of time.
• After the full scale model is built and tested, simulation models can be used for further optimization.

The above process can be conducted jointly by the material/process developer and the equipment manufacturer. It allows specific information exchange between the two parties since simulation models provide much more detailed information than what can be measured. They also provide a better understanding of critical material properties and process conditions.

During the recent years, we see more applications of simulation to process industry। Yet, the progress has been slow mainly due to the complexity of materials and processes. It is not practical to expect off the shelf software to answer all the questions for such problems. The implementation of simulation tools require software which can model the entire problem and is validated for that process. This requires close cooperation between the process and software developers. Please contact Technalysis for more details

Granulation Process Engineering Capabilities of Technalysis

Fluidized Bed Granulation - High-Shear Granulation - Granulation Process Engineering Capabilities of Technalysis

Multiphase CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) Capabilities of Technalysis

Multiphase CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) Capabilities of Technalysis

Technalysis' multi-phase CFD capabilities can be divided into three prominent categories:

System flow modeling
Continuum flow modeling
Discrete flow modeling

System flow modeling:
One Dimensional two-phase flow and heat transfer analysis.

Features:

Flow rate and pressure distribution
Phase change
Heat transfer with ambient
Coupled with air flow analysis inside the refrigerator

Application areas:

Refrigerant system analysis in refrigerator, air conditioning, etc.

Continuum flow modeling:
Three dimensional flow, heat transfer, concentration analysis

Features:

Level-set method to track interface between phases
Concentration analysis for mixing of phases
Phase change
Space charge behavior
Particle tracking


Application areas:

Casting, solidification, melting, condensation, evaporation, free surface
Mixture of gas/liquid, liquid/liquid
Binary mixing
Developer charge and mixing

Discrete flow modeling:
Three dimensional flows of particles under different forces.

Features:

Internal contact
Electrostatic, Magnetic and Gravitational forces
Varied particle size and shape
Charge and temperature analysis
Application areas:

Bulk material handling process and equipment design
Pharmaceutical tablet coating
Mixing of pharmaceutical molecule with binder
Charging of toner more

Fluid Flow Modeling CFD Software - CAE Engineering Solutions by Technalysis

Fluid Flow Modeling CFD Software - CAE Engineering Solutions by Technalysis: "PASSAGE®/FLOW Software
PASSAGE®/FLOW is a general purpose three-dimensional finite element program used for the solution of fluid dynamics and heat transfer problems. Applications of PASSAGE/FLOW include a variety of product design and process development issues.

PASSAGE/FLOW can be used to analyze:
liquids, gasses, and powders with free surface, melting/freezing and nonlinear material properties.
flows in magnetic and electrical fields coupled with structural deformations.
flows through complex stationary and rotating passages to determine flow losses and flow induced noise problems.
Together with PASSAGE®/Sysflow, it can be used to provide a solution of component and system design issues for product and process design.

Together with PASSAGE®/DEM, the software can be used to provide a solution of problems where micro- and macro-scale issues are combined."

CFD- Process Modeling Software for Pharmaceutical and Chemical Industry

CFD-  Process Modeling Software for Pharmaceutical and Chemical Industry: "Advantages of coupled 1D/3D Analysis
Technalysis offers Passage/Sysflow for full 1 D system analysis coupled with 3D Passage/Flow.
Contact us to discuss how 1D systems analysis and 3D component analysis together help you in your design cycle."

CFD Software and Consulting - Customized Software Development - Custom CAE Software by Technalysis

CFD Software and Consulting - Customized Software Development - Custom CAE Software by Technalysis: "Custom CFD Software Development by Technalysis
Technalysis' Passage Software has been used within wide variety of industry applications. However, Technalysis can customize its Passage Program to specific needs.
Technalysis has over 20 years of experience developing, customizing and supporting software for many specific applications"

Transmission Cooling Problems - Torque Converter Design Software - Torque Converter Analysis - Technalysis' CAE Engineering - CFD Software

Transmission Cooling Problems - Torque Converter Design Software - Torque Converter Analysis - Technalysis' CAE Engineering - CFD Software

Torque Converter Design Software - Torque Converter Analysis - Technalysis' CAE Engineering - CFD Software

Torque Converter Design Software - Torque Converter Analysis - Technalysis' CAE Engineering - CFD Software: "Technalysis' CAE Expertise in Torque Converters
Technalysis designs torque converters to meet customer performance specifications and installation space requirements. Design modifications are established to provide the desired flow performance. Blade shape changes are implemented in the finite models of the three torque converter components. The flow analyses are repeated and tabulated for comparisons.
Flow analyses are performed at converter stall and other speed ratios using PASSAGE®/Flow Software, Technalysis' 3-D finite element flow analysis software.

Analysis results are presented in terms of velocity and pressure distributions and blade loading diagrams.
Any flow recirculation areas (losses) are identified.
Overall performance parameters for a baseline design are determined.
The component models are then modified to meet specific performance objectives. Results are validated using prototypes.

Technalysis furnishes design services to meet the objectives of your next torque converter requirement by:
Evaluating current torque converter performance
Establishing blade shape changes for performance improvement:
increased torque
improved efficiency
meet specific torque ratio/speed ratio objectives"

Solving Transmission Cooling Problems using CFD

Transmission Cooling Problems - Torque Converter Design Software - Torque Converter Analysis - Technalysis' CAE Engineering - CFD Software