Abstract
Most pharmaceutical products such as tablets, capsules, and dry powder inhalers are manufactured with dry powders of different material properties and functionalities. The manufacturing performance and the bulk response of the powder mixtures are determined by the properties of individual particles as well as equipment design and process parameters. The discrete element method (DEM) is proven to be the most robust numerical method to analyse pharmaceutical powder handling and processing and to explicitly link the individual particle properties with the bulk powder behaviour. This chapter aims to present a brief introduction of DEM modelling, including principles, parameter calibration, model validation, and its application in pharmaceutical processing. For this purpose, an overview of DEM modelling of several key unit operations in pharmaceutical manufacturing, including powder mixing, continuous blending, twin screw granulation, die filling, and dry powder inhalation, is presented. How DEM is used for understanding fundamental mechanisms in these processes and full‐scale modelling is discussed. It is anticipated that, with further advances in DEM and computer hardware, DEM could play a pivotal role in digital manufacturing of pharmaceutical products.