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EDEM Simulator
EDEM Simulator is a powerful solver used for fast and efficient simulations.
Set Simulator Parameters
You can set simulation parameters such as the Time Step, simulation time, grid options, and Simulator Engine for the CPU mode, along with the GPU parameters.
Preserve Contact Between Triangles
You can preserve the contact history for a particle passing from one element to another.

Welcome
About EDEM
EDEM is a high-performance simulation software for bulk and granular materials.
What's New
New features and enhancements available in EDEM.
Release Notes
This section contains information about the EDEM release, such as key features, enhancements, bug fixes, and known issues.
Tutorials
Start using EDEM functionality with our interactive tutorials.
Get Started with EDEM
The EDEM user interface comprises three icons for each simulation component - Creator, Simulator, and Analyst.
EDEM Creator
EDEM Creator is the pre-processor for creating an EDEM simulation model, including setting up equipment and defining the generation of bulk materials.
EDEM Simulator
EDEM Simulator is a powerful solver used for fast and efficient simulations.
- Set Simulator Parameters
  You can set simulation parameters such as the Time Step, simulation time, grid options, and Simulator Engine for the CPU mode, along with the GPU parameters.
  - Time Steps
    A Time Step is the amount of time between iterations (calculations) in EDEM Simulator.
  - Set Data Save
    You can configure settings that determine the simulation data saved, the type of data to be saved, save interval, and data compression.
  - Export Simulation Results
    While running simulations, you can export simulation results to assess the behavior of the simulation during processing without the need for stopping and post-processing in EDEM Analyst.
  - Simulator Grid (CPU Engine only)
    The main computational challenge in DEM simulations is the detection of contacts. EDEM Simulator can examine each cell and analyze only those that contain two or more elements (and hence a possible contact) by dividing the domain into grid cells, saving processing time.
  - Track Collision Data
    During a simulation, EDEM can record data about both contacts and collisions.
  - Preserve Contact Between Triangles
    You can preserve the contact history for a particle passing from one element to another.
- Start and Stop a Simulation
  The current simulation time along with all the previous time steps are displayed in the Viewer Controls pane.
- Dynamic Domain
  When you define a Geometry object as a Dynamic Domain, all material inside the object will be active, and EDEM excludes any stationary material outside the object from any calculations, therefore, improving simulation speed. Dynamic Domain is based on the method outlined in Mio et al., 2009.
- Select the EDEM Simulator Engine
  You can run a simulation in CPU or GPU engine mode. However, the GPU mode requires supported GPU hardware.
- Run EDEM in Batch Mode
  EDEM's Command Line Interface allows you to run EDEM in batch mode without using the GUI.
- Reduce Simulation Time
  The time taken by the Simulator to perform a single iteration, t_iteration, is affected quite significantly by the simulation parameters.
EDEM Analyst
EDEM Analyst is the post-processor used to analyze and visualize the results of your simulation.
EDEM Contact Models
A Contact Model describes how elements behave when they come into contact with each other.
EDEM Cal Utility
EDEM Cal is a utility which works with EDEM and is designed to assist in performing calibration.
GPU CUDA Guide
The EDEM CUDA GPU module uses the latest General Purpose Computing on Graphical Processing Units (GPU) technology.
Programming Guide
The EDEM Programming Guide describes the EDEM API.
Coupling Interface Programming Guide
The Coupling Interface Programming Guide provides an overview of how to use the EDEM Coupling Interface to couple with a generic CFD code and/or Multi Body dynamics codes.
EDEMpy
EDEMpy is a Python library for accessing EDEM data from .h5 files (the underlying EDEM file format). EDEMpy does not require prior knowledge of advanced programming.
EDEM Solver Capabilities
EDEM contains four solver engines.
Appendix
This section provides additional information about how to estimate simulation time, supported EDEM File types, attribute definitions, and so on.
EDEM Terminology
Definitions of terms used in EDEM.
References and Bibliography
This section cites the contributions made by various authors and sources that have been used as reference material for EDEM, and the specifics of how they have been applied can be found in the individual contact model sections.

Preserve Contact Between Triangles

You can preserve the contact history for a particle passing from one element to another.

When working with Physics models which have a contact history, particles can be seen to ‘jump’ (contact force spikes) when they move from one Geometry element to the next. This is because EDEM regards this as a new contact so the contact history is not preserved.

The Advanced Settings menu option allows you to preserve contacts between triangles. This will keep the contact history for a particle passing from one element to another. A user-defined tolerance is required for this option to allow for Geometries with minor variation in angle to be considered continuous. The tolerance is defined by an angle, and is the maximum angle between planes at which they would be considered co-planar.

The Advanced Settings menu option also allows you to set the angle threshold by navigating to Simulator Engine > Simulator Settings.

In this example, when the difference in angle is 10 degrees, the contact is considered continuous and when the difference in angle is 70 degrees, it is considered as a separate contact.

The default value is 0.00017 degrees. 10 degrees would be considered an extreme value.