An Innovative Approach to Studying Sifting Segregation via DEM Informed Scale Down

Sifting segregation during hopper discharge is a common issue in powder handling that negatively affects product quality and, therefore, needs to be understood and mitigated. A widely used experimental test to study this type of segregation involves the flow of a powder mixture through a series of hoppers. Testing Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) using this method can be challenging as the standard hopper sizes require a large amount of material which is often in short supply and can be expensive during the early stage of development.

In this study, we discuss a novel hopper scale-down methodology informed by Discrete Element Method simulations which can be used to reduce the material requirements for segregation testing thereby saving time and money.

Presented by Stefan Pantaleev, Lead Solutions Specialist at Altair as part of the virtual event: DEM Simulation for Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Processes - Latest Advances, Methodologies & Applications in June 2025.