Drug ScaleUp – Modelling and Simulation of Powder Flow

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Simulation of Bulk Powder

The flow properties and behavior of powders are at the high importance of numerous applications in the pharmaceutical, Chemical, food, and other process manufacturing industries. It therefore needs a deeper understanding on physical characteristics of powders to arrive efficiency, efficacy and challenges pertinent to its flow properties. Understanding powders’ flow behavior is critical to ensure accurate manufacturing results and avoid quality issues for the end product.

DEM approach in our application has proven accuracy with agreement and simulation of a range of powder applications, with key insights during processes.

One critical aspect in powder simulations using DEM is the formation of suitable virtual materials that emulates the behavior of the real material and their behavior during the process. This can be achieved by choosing appropriate input parameters and it is an important step in process of DEM simulations which shall address core factors affecting particle.

Prediction of optimum material attributes for a given process:

When the raw material characteristics are prone to vary over the life cycle of product which is marked or under development, it is necessary that the process parameter selection shall include their randomness. For this purpose, conducting experiments, with unknown deviations in powder properties is a huge task for a formulation scientist.

Fortunately, it is possible to estimate the influence of material attributes effect of process performance through DEM and this knowledge can be directly applied throughout the development and life-cycle management of various powder based products.

To address this challenge, we can harness the DEM approach to find the powder flow behavior in a given process with various range of powder properties, e.g. using narrower particle size distribution instead of wider distribution, particle shape to be closer to spherical instead of needle-like.

Prediction of optimum process parameters for a give powder blend:

One of objective formulation specialist would have in mind while developing the process for a given blend is “what is the optimum process design map for this blend and what is the edge-of-failure for this process?”. It is possible to answer this question through various trial-and-error experiments, however, it is not always possible to conduct experiments for one or other reason (e.g. non-availability sufficient API, strict timelines, equipment availability, etc.). Generally, by performing a screening DoE, such process design map is created. However, it is not clear whether the selected design is able sufficiently capture the relationship between various factors effectively or not.

Fortunately, it is possible to estimate the influence of material attributes effect of process performance through DEM and this knowledge can be directly applied throughout the development and life-cycle management of various powder based products.

With the DEM backed approach, it is possible to predict the flow behavior with full-factorial DoE, such that complete relationship between various input factors can be established. This method also enables one to create process design maps which clearly indicates the edge-of-failure points. Through this approach, it is possible to reduce several trial-and-error experiments and to understand the process dynamics clearly by knowing the particle motion at any given time of the process. Therefore, the formulation designer has higher control over his process.