Wall collision and drug-carrier detachment in dry powder inhalers: Using DEM to devise a sub-scale model for CFD calculations

Abstract In this work, the Discrete Element Method (DEM) is used to simulate the dispersion process of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) after a wall collision in dry powders inhaler used for lung delivery. Any fluid dynamic effects are neglected in this analysis at the moment. A three-dimensional model is implemented with one carrier particle (diameter 100 μm) and 882 drug particles (diameter 5 μm). The effect of the impact velocity (varied between 1 and 20 m s−1), angle of impact (between 5° and 90°) and the carrier rotation (±100,000 rad s−1) are investigated for both elastic and sticky walls. The dispersion process shows a preferential area of drug detachment located in the southe…