Comparisons of Inter-tablet Coating Variability under Different Tablet Shapes and Filling Levels by Using DEM Simulations

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate inter-tablet coating thickness variability based on different tablet shapes and filling levels. To achieve this goal, the Discrete Element Method (DEM) is applied, and efforts are made as following: For the first step, four different tablet shapes, referred to as Sphere, SRC (Standard Round Concave), Oval and Triangular, are built by importing three (except Sphere) CAD templates to create one or more spherical surfaces. Furthermore, a spray zone in the coating pan is presented to monitor the change of the "coating mass", by virtue of which we calculate the inter-tablet coating variability. And to complete this work, custom contact models and properties are created to describe coating. Then, three different filling levels are added to the simulation. Eventually, the compared results are analyzed between three diverse filling degrees among tablet particles with four discrepant shapes.