EDEM software from DEM Solutions, a leader in discrete element modeling software, is used for simulation of particulate flows. EDEM supports the EnSight format directly, i.e. an option is provided in the product to output data into EnSight Case format. Read more about EnSight and EDEM on the DEM Solutions partner web site.

“If you couple FLUENT and DEM, there’s no way to look at the results simultaneously. Without a way to visualize the coupled solution, you cannot see the whole picture,” explains Andrew Hobbs, an engineer for Astec. Each program has its own built-in visualization tools, but neither can read the results of the other.  Because EnSight can visualize results from many different software programs, including CFD and DEM, and can load multiple results at one time, “EnSight lets you read in the results from each solver and see them simultaneously,” he said. This ability enabled him to make calculations, images, movies, and even 3D scenes with the combined results, including velocity of rock particle, as well as velocity of fluid domain.

Peter Weitzman, Vice President of Americas at DEM Solutions, adds, “What’s nice about EnSight in conjunction with EDEM™ is that now you can visualize solids and fluids together and see how they interact.”

Application Stories, Tutorials and Images
Computer Animations Help Astec Engineers Pave the Way

Textures

In this tutorial we illustrate advanced features of texture application using the EDEM interface; single sided textures and application of textures onto a moving grid geometry. First, using the tool selection and the subset parts, the user can apply the texture to a portion of a model part, thus allowing the texture to show only on a single side, rather than both sides (by default). Second, for transient moving grid models, we illustrate how the texture can be tied to the geometry so that the texture remains fixed relative to the geometry.

This EnSight animation shows a test case using FLUENT to calculate a fully reacting unsteady natural gas flame in a simply counter flow drum dryer coupled to EDEM with heat transfer from the fluid phase (CFD) to the solid phase (DEM).  The rock particles are colored by temperature so you can see them gain heat.

Comparative analysis of the effect of the rock material bed (simulated using the DEM - Fluent coupling) on a natural gas flame inside a counter flow aggregate drum dryer.  The upper two quadrants show the flame shape and velocity pathlines with the material bed present and the lower two quadrants show the same with in an empty drum.

Knowledge Base
This section below searches the Knowledge Base for information about using EnSight with EDEM: