EDEM Creator - Set up the Model

Learn how to set up a simulation model and equipment, and define the generation of bulk materials using EDEM Creator.

To set up the model:
  1. Select the units of measurement to be used throughout EDEM. For more information about how to select units, see Select Units.
    1. Click Tools > Options... and then select the Units tab.
    2. In the Units tab, change the following measurement units:
      • Angle to degrees (deg)
      • Angular velocity to deg/s
      • Length to mm
      • Mass to kg
      • Mass Flow Rate to kg/s
      • Velocity to m/s
    3. Click OK.
  2. Specify a title and description for the model.
    1. Click Project in the Creator Tree.
    2. In the Detailed View, specify a title (Rock Box Model).
    3. Enter a description in the Description field.
    The model title and description is displayed in the Data Browser window. You can close the Data Browser window to allocate more space for the windows that will be used throughout this tutorial. If required, you can open the Data Browser window again by right-clicking the menu bar and selecting Data Browser.

Define the Bulk and Equipment Materials

The first step in setting up the model is to add bulk material and bulk material particle shapes to a model and define their interactions.

To define the bulk material:
Add the bulk material.
  1. Right-click Bulk Material in the Creator Tree, select Open GEMM Wizard.

    This will open the Generic EDEM Material Model (GEMM) Database.

  2. Select Search by Material Properties and click Next.
    The GEMM wizard will select a material appropriate for the simulation based on the following three inputs:
    1. Select Extra Large for the scale of the application and click Next.
    2. Select 1000 - 1500 kg/m3 for the bulk density and click Next.
    3. Enter an angle of repose of 38.00° and click Next.

    The GEMM wizard will present the ten closest matches from the GEMM database, based on these three options.

  3. Select the top entry, with material properties as follows:

    Note: If none of the ten materials display the values shown, select the material which is the closest match.
  4. Click Next.
  5. Select the High Wall Friction and Medium Wall Friction checkboxes in the Inclination Test Details section.
  6. Click Finish.

    The GEMM wizard will import a Bulk Material and two Equipment Materials.

  7. Expand the Bulk Material section in the Creator tree to display the particle material name ( GEMM_particle_material_11921).
  8. Right-click the Bulk Material, and select Rename Material.
  9. Enter the name rock in the New Name field.
  10. Expand the Equipment Material section and repeat Step h for the two Equipment Materials, renaming the medium and high friction materials to steel and rubber, respectively.

    The Bulk Material properties (interactions, shape, and size distributions) have been set by the GEMM Database. Also interactions between the Bulk Material (rock) and Equipment Materials (rubber and steel) have already been created by the GEMM wizard. To verify, select rock in the Creator Tree and click the Interactions section to view the interactions that have been defined.

Define the Geometries

The next step in setting up the model is to define the rock box Geometry used in the model.

To define Geometries:
  1. Import the rock box Geometry that has already been created and is ready to be imported into EDEM.
    1. Right-click Geometries in the Creator Tree and then select Import Geometry.
    2. Navigate to the file rock_box1.stl and import it.
    3. In the Geometry Import Parameters dialog box, set the Units of measurement to Millimeters.
    4. Ensure that the Merge Sections checkbox is not selected and that all the settings have the default values.
    5. Click OK.
      Note: The rock box is displayed in the Viewer. It is made up of four sections which are listed under the Geometries section in the Creator Tree. When you select any of the options, they are highlighted in red.
    6. In the Geometries section, right-click each Geometry element and rename them as follows:
      • Receiving_Conveyor
      • Head_Pulley
      • Feed_Conveyor
      • Rock_Box
    7. Select Rock_Box in the Geometries section of the Creator Tree.
    8. Change the Material to steel.
    9. Repeat Steps g and h for the Head_Pulley and Conveyors, ensuring that the material is set to rubber.
  2. Set up the Head Pulley motion.
    1. Select Head_Pulley in the Creator Tree Geometries section.
    2. Right-click and then select Add Motion > Add Linear Rotation Kinematic.
    3. Select the newly created kinematic, and then set the Initial Velocity and the Axis of Rotation.
    4. Set the Start and End Time to default.
    5. Modify the Initial Velocity to 7.08 rad/s to match the linear velocity of the conveyor (3.54 m/s) since the radius of the pulley is 0.5 m.
    6. To specify the Axis of Rotation, enter the start and end points as follows:


    7. Select the Display Vector checkbox to display the Axis of Rotation.
      Note: You can also specify the axis by clicking Pick next to Start and End. The same approach will be used when specifying conditions for the conveyors later. Enter the points manually here to ensure that the axis is defined accurately, otherwise the Axis of Rotation will move and the simulation may not produce the desired qualitative results.
  3. Configure the moving conveyors.
    The motion of the conveyors is taken into account using the Conveyor Translation Kinematic. The kinematic adds a linear velocity to the Geometry section.
    1. Select Receiving_Conveyor in the Creator Tree Geometries section.
    2. Right-click and then select Add Motion > Add Conveyor Translation Kinematic.
    3. Set the Initial Acceleration to 1 m/s2 starting at 4s and ending at 7.54 s, and then click Pick to set the direction as follows:


      Tip: When using the pick tool, set the Geometry to display as Mesh and click within a triangle close to the node that you want to select.
    4. Right-click the kinematic to copy the motion retaining the default options.
    5. Click Edit to create a second conveyor kinematic for the Receiving Conveyor with a linear velocity of 3.54 m/s starting at 7.54 s as follows:


    6. Select Feed_Conveyor and setup a conveyor kinematic with an initial linear velocity of 3.54 m/s as follows:


  4. Create the particle factory plate.
    Note: Particle factories are used to define where, when and how particles will appear in a simulation. All factories must be based on a section of Geometry (whether 'real' or 'virtual'). This defines the area or volume in the model that produces the particles.
    1. Right-click Geometries in the Creator Tree.
    2. Select Add Geometry > Polygon and then enter the name factory_plate into the highlighted field.
    3. Select factory_plate and in the General section of the Detailed View set the type to Virtual, since the plate is not a physical part of the machinery.
    4. Expand factory_plate in the Creator Tree and select the Transform and Polygon subsections.
    5. Specify the Number of Edges, X/Y/Z Center, and Dimensions of the polygon as follows:




  5. Create the particle factory.
    1. Right-click factory_plate in the Creator Tree.
    2. Click Add Factory and select Dynamic Factory.
      Optionally, right-click the new factory in the Creator Tree and then select Change Factory Type.


      .
    3. In the Particle Generation dialog box, select Unlimited Number.
    4. In the Generation Rate section, select Target Mass and set the rate to 220 kg/s.
      Note: The material will automatically default to the only Bulk Material created in this simulation which is rock.
  6. Set the initial parameters for the factory.
    1. Set the Velocity to fixed and click the icon to set the velocity in the x-direction to 3.54 m/s.
      Note: The particles will leave the factory with this velocity.
    2. Select File > Save.
Next Step - Run the Simulation