Development of characterization methods for the mixing of pharmaceutical powders

粉末和颗粒材料的混合是一个与加拿大制药工业非常相关的话题。例如，众所周知，制造药物的工艺操作条件可能对其成分特性高度敏感。这一事实以及生产高效低风险药品的重要性验证了研究计划的有效性，这些研究计划调查了在此类药物的配方和生产中涉及的固体成分的流动和混合的物理现象。现实情况是，尽管对粉末动力学的兴趣越来越大，但与流体力学的最新进展相比，在这一领域知之甚少。这项工作涉及实验和计算方法的发展和改进，以表征粉末在混合设备中的流动行为。在实验层面，将设计一种适合低浓度小粒子的创新型放射性粒子跟踪方法。在计算层面，我们近年来开发的基于离散元素方法的模型将得到改进和扩展，以便它们可以处理更接近于制药工业中发现的颗粒系统。对加拿大制药业的好处将包括更好地了解粉末技术和开发更有效和可控的制药产品混合工艺。最后，该项目将培训高素质的化学工程师，使他们能够设计和操作涉及各种粉末的化学过程。

The mixing of powders and granular materials is a topic of great relevance to the Canadian pharmaceutical industry. It is known, for example, that the process operating conditions for the manufacturing of a drug may be highly sensitive to its ingredient properties. This fact and the importance of manufacturing high-efficiency and low-risk pharmaceutical products validates research initiatives that investigate the physical phenomena governing the flow and the mixing of the solid ingredients involved in the formulation and production of such drugs. The reality is that, despite a growing interest in the dynamics of powders, little is known in this field as compared to the state of the art in fluid mechanics. This work concerns the development and improvement of experimental and computational methods for the characterization of the flow behavior of powders in blending equipment. At the experimental level, an innovative radioactive particle tracking well-suited for low concentration of small particles will be devised. At the computational level, models that we have developed in recent years, which are based on the discrete element method, will be improved and extended so that they can deal with particulate systems closer to those found in the pharmaceutical industry. The benefits to the Canadian pharmaceutical industry will include a better understanding of powder technology and the development of more efficient and controllable blending processes for the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products. Finally, this project will enable the training of highly qualified chemical engineers for the design and operation of chemical processes involving powders of all kinds.