DualSPHysics-INL: GPU-Accelerated Biomass Flow Simulation for Equipment Optimization
Leverages smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) to model biomass granular flow, ensuring better design and efficiency of handling equipment
The Challenge
Handling granular biomass feedstock—like wood chips, crop residues, and pellets—poses a significant challenge for manufacturers and processors. Equipment such as hoppers, augers, and screw feeders often suffer from intermittent flow, leading to costly issues like jamming and bridging. For biorefineries and other industries, this poor flow behavior translates into production delays, operational inefficiencies, and increased downtime.
Why does this happen? Granular biomass behaves differently than traditional bulk solids, and existing tools fail to accurately simulate these unique flow dynamics. Manufacturers and processing facilities are left guessing how to optimize equipment design and feedstock handling.
How It Works
Developed by researchers at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) under the DOE’s Bioenergy Technology Office through the Feedstock-Conversion Interface Consortium (FCIC), this software expands on the open-source DualSPHysics framework to simulate granular biomass flow behavior with high accuracy.
Key Enhancements:
1. Void Ratio Tracking: The mass conservation equation has been modified to track the void ratio instead of density, ensuring more accurate modeling of biomass materials.
2. Hypoplastic Constitutive Law: Incorporates a material-specific flow model that better captures the unique physics of granular biomass.
3. Dynamic Boundary Conditions: A novel boundary condition implementation allows the simulation of real-world contact interactions between the biomass and equipment surfaces.
4. GPU Acceleration: Implemented using NVIDIA CUDA for GPU-based parallel processing, reducing computational times significantly and making large-scale simulations feasible.
The result: Engineers can accurately simulate biomass flow, understand potential flow challenges, and refine equipment designs to mitigate jamming and improve throughput.
Key Advantages
• Eliminates Guesswork in Design: Models real-world biomass flow behavior, ensuring equipment designs are optimized before implementation.
• Reduces Downtime: Identifies and mitigates causes of jamming and bridging, improving process flow.
• Accelerates Simulations: GPU acceleration enables faster computations, reducing simulation times significantly compared to traditional CPU-based approaches.
• Customizable for Biomass Feedstocks: Tailored to simulate a variety of biomass types, from wood chips to crop residues.
• Supports Cost-Effective Process Optimization: Helps biorefineries and equipment manufacturers streamline processes, saving time and resources.
Market Applications
• Equipment Manufacturers: Companies designing and manufacturing handling equipment (hoppers, augers, screw conveyors) can use the software to ensure their systems are optimized for granular biomass flow.
• Biorefineries: Processing facilities struggling with biomass feedstock flow issues can simulate and fine-tune their material feeding processes to improve efficiency.
• Agricultural Processing: Facilities handling agricultural residues can test how various granular feedstocks flow through their systems, minimizing disruptions.
• Energy Sector: Biomass power plants can model feedstock handling to avoid costly downtime and improve energy conversion efficiency.
This software is open source and available at no cost. Download now by visiting the product's GitHub page.