Importance and Need to
Understand and Control Behavior and Response of Granular
Material
The ongoing and increasing importance of granular
materials based technologies and operations in the
world today is encapsulated in the following statement
made by Edward Merrow.
“The flow of granular materials is of fundamental
interest because of the prevalence of these materials
in the pharmaceutical, agricultural, food service,
material handling, mining and power generation industries.
It is estimated that related industries total one
trillion dollars a year in gross sales in the US alone
and they operate at only 63% of capacity. By comparison,
industries that rely on fluid transport processes
operate at 84% of design capacity."
Ref: Merrow, Edward W., "A Quantitative Assessment
of R&D Requirements for Solids processing Technology",
Rand Corporation Report R-3216-DOE/PSSP
.
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The History
of Applied DEM
The history of Applied DEM begins within a company
called Overland
Conveyor Company, Inc. of Lakewood, Colorado.
Overland Conveyor is an engineering consulting firm
with the primary focus of serving the mining industry
in the design and analysis of long-distance underground
and overland belt conveyors. The design and analysis
of high-performance and space-efficient transfer chutes
became a significant part of Overland Conveyor’s
business.
Transfer chutes are a challenging component of belt
conveyor systems due in part to the difficulty of
characterizing material conditions and behavior in
various conveyor configurations. Transfer chutes required
more effective analysis tools than those which were
available in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.
It was for this reason that Overland Conveyor teamed
with a pioneer of discrete-element modeling (DEM)
technology in academia and through that partnership
Chute Analyst™
was developed. Overland Conveyor continues to market
Chute Analyst™ to the mining industry for transfer
chute applications.
Recognizing that there were a number of applications
that Chute Analyst™ wasn’t intended to
analyze, Overland Conveyor again teamed with the developer
of the technology behind Chute Analyst™. Bulk
Flow Analyst™ was developed as a general-purpose
tool to address material flow applications existing
frequently outside the realm of belt conveyors.
Applied DEM is a company formed in 2003 as a subsidiary
of Overland Conveyor Company, Inc. to bring Bulk Flow
Analyst™ to users designing particulate material
flow systems in agriculture, food processing, chemical
and pharmaceutical processing, construction, manufacturing,
and other industries.
Overland Conveyor Company, Inc. serves as a consulting
partner, offering DEM and belt conveyor design and
analysis services.
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