Best Free Discrete Element Method (DEM) Software
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Compare the Top Free Discrete Element Method (DEM) Software as of June 2026
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What is Free Discrete Element Method (DEM) Software?
Discrete Element Method (DEM) software is engineering simulation software used to model and analyze the behavior of granular materials, powders, particles, and bulk solids under various conditions. These platforms simulate interactions between individual particles to help engineers understand material flow, mixing, packing, wear, segregation, and equipment performance. DEM software is widely used in industries such as mining, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, manufacturing, and materials processing to optimize product design and operational efficiency. The software often includes 3D visualization, physics-based modeling, particle collision analysis, and integration with CAD, CFD, and finite element analysis (FEA) tools for multiphysics simulations. By providing detailed insights into particle behavior, DEM software helps organizations reduce development costs, improve process performance, and accelerate engineering innovation. Compare and read user reviews of the best Free Discrete Element Method (DEM) software currently available using the table below. This list is updated regularly.
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LIGGGHTS
CFDEM
LIGGGHTS is an open source Discrete Element Method particle simulation tool for modeling particulate materials, with a focus on industrial granular and granular heat-transfer simulations. LIGGGHTS stands for “LAMMPS improved for general granular and granular heat transfer simulations,” and it builds on the LAMMPS molecular dynamics platform to extend DEM capabilities toward practical industrial applications. It can be used to simulate systems where material behavior emerges from the motion, collision, friction, cohesion, heat transfer, and interaction of individual particles. It is suitable for analyzing powders, grains, bulk solids, particulate flows, packed beds, conveying systems, mixing processes, hopper discharge, material handling, and other granular systems where particle-scale behavior matters. LIGGGHTS is currently used by research institutions and companies worldwide for the simulation of particulate materials, especially where open source flexibility.Starting Price: Free -
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LAMMPS
LAMMPS
LAMMPS, the Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator, is a classical molecular dynamics code with a focus on materials modeling. It models ensembles of particles in liquid, solid, or gaseous states and can simulate atomic, polymeric, biological, solid-state, granular, coarse-grained, mesoscopic, or macroscopic systems using many interatomic potentials, force fields, and boundary conditions. LAMMPS can model systems in two or three dimensions, from only a few particles up to billions, and is designed to run efficiently on parallel computers while remaining easy to extend and modify. It includes potentials for solid-state materials such as metals and semiconductors, soft matter such as biomolecules and polymers, and coarse-grained or mesoscopic systems. It can be used to model atoms or, more generally, as a parallel particle simulator at atomic, meso, or continuum scale.Starting Price: Free -
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Yade
Yade
Yade is an extensible open source framework for discrete numerical models, focused on the Discrete Element Method. Its computation parts are written in C++ using a flexible object model that allows independent implementation of new algorithms and interfaces, while Python is used for rapid and concise scene construction, simulation control, postprocessing, and debugging. Yade is designed for researchers and engineers who need to create, run, inspect, modify, and extend particle-based simulations through scripts, interactive commands, graphical tools, and reusable simulation components. Simulations can be built from specialized generators or constructed directly with Python scripts, giving users flexibility for developing custom models, importing geometries, reusing code, and controlling the full simulation loop. It represents each simulation as a scene containing bodies, interactions, and resultant forces, with bodies defined by geometry, material properties, state variables, etc.Starting Price: Free -
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MercuryDPM
MercuryDPM
MercuryDPM is an open source code for discrete particle simulations, designed to simulate the motion of particles or atoms by applying forces and torques from external body forces, such as gravity or magnetic fields, and from particle interaction laws. For granular particles, these forces are typically contact forces, including elastic, plastic, viscous, and frictional interactions, while molecular simulations can use interaction potentials such as Lennard-Jones. MercuryDPM is written as a versatile, object-oriented C++ code and is built to be understandable, flexible, and extensible for researchers and engineers who need to create new simulation models. It is developed extensively for granular applications, while remaining adaptable to other particle-based systems and long-range interactions. Its documentation guides users through installation, running simulations, visualization, analysis, and creating new MercuryDPM codes to model systems of their choice.Starting Price: Free -
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MFiX
National Energy Technology Laboratory
MFiX, or Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges, is an open source multiphase flow solver and NETL’s flagship suite of computational fluid dynamics tool for modeling reacting multiphase flows. It has become a standard for comparing, implementing, and evaluating multiphase flow constitutive models, and has been applied to a diverse range of multiphase flow devices and industrial systems. MFiX provides multiple modeling approaches, including a Two-Fluid Model, Discrete Element Model, Coarse-Grained Particle DEM, Superquadric Particle DEM, Glued-Sphere Particle DEM, Particle-in-Cell model, hybrid methods, and a single-phase solver for pure granular flows. These models can be used to simulate gasifiers, circulating fluidized bed combustors, fluidized beds, fluid catalytic crackers, chemical looping combustion systems, and other particle-fluid systems involving hydrodynamics, heat transfer, species transport, and chemical reactions.Starting Price: Free
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