Altair EDEM 2020

EDEM 2020 highlights include:

New Sphere Fitting Tool

EDEM can simulate any size and shape of material using the computationally efficient and well validated multi-sphere method. In this method, shape is introduced by overlapping multiple spheres and, by increasing the number of overlapping spheres, it allows for increased shape fidelity. With the new Sphere Fitting tool, users no longer must manually arrange spheres to create the shape they want to represent. The tool automatically builds a multi-sphere particle that closely matches an imported particle shape from a CAD file. Users can control the number of spheres used, as well as restrict the minimum sphere size. This tool means users can get the benefit of efficient multi-sphere simulation without the effort of building the particle shape.

Figure 1

Creating complex shapes in EDEM is now an automated process with the Sphere Fitting Tool

Meta Particles Creation

Many industry applications involve material that is flexible or elongated in nature, such as fibers, agricultural crops and grass. Meta Particles, introduced in the EDEM Creator, enables users to easily create groups of particles to create flexible fibers through the use of a Bonded Model that has been updated to support Meta Particles. It is also fully GPU compliant. This significantly reduces the time and effort needed to set up a simulation for flexible particles and enables all users to create such material in a straight-forward manner.

Figure 2

Creating flexible materials such as hay or even spaghetti is easy with the new Meta Particle feature in EDEM 2020

Material Block Dynamic Factory

EDEM has previously introduced a Bed Generation Tool (also known as Material Block) that enables users to generate large beds of material quickly and easily by copying and arranging smaller blocks of material. With EDEM 2020 this capability has been extended to operate as a ‘dynamic factory’ meaning the same block of material can be automatically introduced in a simulation at regular intervals. This works well where batching occurs naturally, such as screw augers, belted conveyors, balers and more. This capability is a powerful way to enable the output of one simulation to be used as input to another simulation without having to re-run it, saving significant amounts of time.

Figure 3

A material block of particles can be automatically inserted into a simulation at regular time intervals to replicate the outflow from a physical system

Motion Control

A motion control capability is now available, enabling users to easily introduce motions to geometries that occur due to force or torque being applied. Previously only possible via EDEM’s coupling interface, this capability to add force and torque is now available directly from the EDEM Creator and can be combined with regular kinematics. This creates a powerful environment to easily define a broad range of geometry movements to match real-life equipment movement.

Figure 4

Motions to geometries that occur due to forces or torques being applied can be easily introduced