MFiX
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.
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LIGGGHTS
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.
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Simcenter EDEM
Simcenter EDEM is a high-performance Discrete Element Method tool for bulk material and particle simulation, designed to give engineers crucial insight into how granular materials interact with handling equipment across a range of operating and process conditions. It accurately simulates and analyzes the behavior of coal, ores, soils, fibers, grains, tablets, powders, rocks, crops, and other real-world materials. Users can get started quickly with extensive pre-calibrated material model libraries representing rocks, ores, soils, and powders, while validated physics models support dry, sticky, compressible, and more complex material behaviors. Simcenter EDEM can simulate complex, industry-scale particle systems involving many millions of particles with fast and scalable compute performance across CPU, GPU, and multi-GPU solvers.
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XPS (eXtended Particle Simulations)
XPS, or eXtended Particle Simulations, is a state-of-the-art Discrete Element Method simulation software developed by RCPE and distributed globally by InSilicoTrials for high-fidelity particle-based process simulation. Designed specifically for pharmaceutical applications, XPS accurately predicts powder and granular behavior, helping teams better understand, predict, and control pharmaceutical unit operations. It relies on advanced contact models to describe the flow behavior of granular materials and uses massively parallel algorithms optimized for modern GPUs to accelerate simulations, including simulations with up to 100 million particles. XPS helps pharmaceutical engineers assess process configurations in unprecedented detail, explore decision space virtually, reduce costly and time-consuming physical experiments, and support data-driven process development.
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